Ball State University Athletics
Soccer Travels To Ohio And Akron This Weekend
October 15, 2009 | Soccer
What's On Tap . . .
The Cardinals continue their four-game Mid-American Conference road swing this weekend as they travel to Ohio Friday afternoon and Akron Sunday afternoon ... Ball State will have played six of its first eight MAC games away from home and will finish the season playing seven of 11 league contests on the road ... Live stats will be available for both games courtesy of Ohio and Akron ... Links to the live stats will be available at www.ballstatesports.com.
Series History . . .
Friday's game marks the 13th meeting all-time between Ball State and Ohio ... The Cardinals trail the all-time series by a 4-7-1 margin, but have gone 3-0-1 over the past four seasons against the Bobcats ... Last season, Ball State took home a 2-0 victory over Ohio ... The Cardinals recorded a school-record 36 shots in the victory as they out-shot Ohio by a 36-4 margin ... BSU tallied a goal in the third minute from Emily Rein while Megan Ridley scored in the 59th minute off of a corner kick.
Sunday's game marks the ninth meeting all-time between Ball State and Akron ... The Cardinals own a 5-0-3 mark all-time against the Zips, including a 2-0-2 mark in Akron ... Last year, the two teams battled to a 2-2 tie in Muncie ... The Cardinals owned a 30-10 advantage in shots in the contest, including a 6-1 edge in the overtime periods ... Akron struck first as it scored just a minute into the game before the Cardinals tied the contest heading into halftime ... The Zips took their second lead with a goal at the 68:27 mark but the lead was short lived as former Cardinal Bailey Decker tied the game just 55 seconds later.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters the weekend with a 4-9-0 overall record and a 2-4-0 mark in Mid-American Conference play ... The Cardinals have dropped three straight MAC games after opening the year 2-1 ... BSU suffered a 3-0 defeat at Central Michigan and a 2-1 setback at Eastern Michigan last weekend ... The Cardinals have scored 17 goals this season while allowing 36 goals against ... Senior midfielder Megan Ridley leads the team in scoring with 11 points, which is tied for third in the MAC ... Ridley has scored a team-high four goals and has handed out three assists ... Junior forward Jacki Eft is second on the team in scoring with seven points as she has scored one goal and handed out a team-high five assists ... Eft is second in the MAC in assists ... Classmate Missy Gordon is third in scoring with six points on the strength of two goals and two assists ... Freshman goalkeeper Nicole Wood is second in the MAC with 69 saves this season and has a 2.49 goals against average.
Scouting The Bobcats . . .
Ohio enters the weekend with a 6-5-2 overall record and is tied for second in the Mid-American Conference with a 3-1-2 mark ... The Bobcats have posted a 3-0-1 record over the past two weekends with wins over Toledo, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois while tying Bowling Green ... Ohio has scored 15 goals this season while allowing 20 goals against ... Amy Lower and Kelsey Pichel lead the team in scoring with seven points each ... Lower has scored three goals while Pichel leads the team with five assists ... In goal, Jess MacLean has played the majority of time and owns a 1.45 goals against average and has tallied three shutouts.
Scouting The Zips . . .
Akron enters the weekend with a 4-6-2 overall record and a 2-3-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play ... The Zips posted a 1-1-0 weekend last weekend as they dropped a one goal game to Toledo before downing Bowling Green ... Akron will host Miami Friday night to open the weekend ... The Zips have scored 10 goals this season while allowing 20 goals against ... Rachel Phillip leads the team with eight points (3g, 2a), while Britni Back has six points (2g, 2a) ... In goal, Jeny Wolbert owns a 1.29 goals against average in 11 games as she has a 3-5-2 record on the year.
Moving Up The Charts . . .
Senior midfielder Megan Ridley leads the team in scoring this season with 11 points, on the strength of four goals and three assists ... Ridley, a First Team All-Mid-American Conference selection last season, has tallied 10 goals in her career ... She moved into a tie for eighth all-time in BSU scoring history with Lindsay Wiltshire and Annie Aiello ... Dee Nocero holds the all-time record with 30 career goals between 2001-04 ... Also, Ridley is now in sole possession of 10th all-time in career points with 28.
Home Sweet Home . . .
Ball State has benefited from some home field advantage at the BSU Soccer Field as it owns a 60-27-11 (.668) record in program history ... The Cardinals have posted a .500 or better record at home in nine out of their 10 seasons, including a 6-1-1 mark last fall ... Over the past five seasons, the Cardinals have a .745 winning percentage at home as they are 32-8-9 during that span ... Additionally, since the beginning of the 2007 season the Cardinals are 17-3-3 at home and have out-scored opponents by a 44-16 margin.
So far this season, the Cardinals are 3-1-0 at home with victories over SIU-Edwardsville, Lipscomb and Bowling Green ... Ball State had a program-record 808 fans come out to enjoy the Cardinals' 4-0 victory over Lipscomb Friday ... The 808 fans sets a new record for attendance at the BSU Soccer Field, surpassing the previous mark of 759 fans September 30, 2007 against Eastern Michigan.
Freshman Scorers . . .
Freshmen forward Paige Stroinski, forward Maggie Brown and defender Brigit Reder have each scored their first career collegiate goals this season ... Reder tallied her first career goal Sunday afternoon as she netted the game-winning goal against Buffalo ... Stroinski and Brown each recorded their first career collegiate goals against SIU-Edwardsville ... The two freshmen are the first Ball State rookies to score their first career goals in the same game since August 26, 2005 ... In that game, former Cardinals Emily Rein and Annie Aiello scored their first career goals in Ball State's 3-0 victory against Indiana State ... In fact, the game marked the first time Ball State has had two freshmen score in the same game since 2005.
Fresh Faces In The Crowd . . .
The Cardinals welcome in nine true freshmen to the team this season, marking one of the largest recruiting classes in recent history ... Joining the team this fall are defender Skylar Chew, defender Amanda Dreyfus, goalkeeper Nicole Wood, defender Brigit Reder, midfielder Maggie Brown, defender Coco Cammon, forward Lindsey Dorroh, midfielder Alyssa Ables and forward Paige Stroinski.
The freshmen class will help to replace last season's seven-member senior class.
Road Warriors . . .
Ball State opened the 2009 season with five straight road games for the first time in program history ... The Cardinals have opened with four straight road games on five different occasions, including last season ... Ball State will play just six of its 18 games at home this season ... The Cardinals are in the road portion of the unbalanced Mid-American Conference schedule this season with only four home MAC contests compared to seven road league games.
Did You Know? . . .
The Cardinals have qualified for the Mid-American Conference Tournament eight times in their 10-year history, with all eight appearances coming from 2001-2008.
Looking Ahead . . .
Ball State returns to the friendly confines of the BSU Soccer Field next weekend for its final regular season home games ... The Cardinals host Northern Illinois and Western Michigan on the weekend with the WMU contest serving as senior day.
