Ball State University Athletics
Soccer Travels To Michigan For Two MAC Games
October 08, 2009 | Soccer
LIVE STATS vs. Central Michigan
LIVE STATS vs. Eastern Michigan
What's On Tap . . .
The Cardinals embark on a four-game Mid-American Conference road swing this weekend as they travel to Central Michigan Friday afternoon and Eastern Michigan Sunday afternoon ... Ball State's four-game road trip in MAC play is tied for its longest conference road stretch in program history ... Live stats will be available for both games courtesy of CMU and EMU ... Links to the live stats will be available at www.ballstatesports.com.
Series History . . .
Friday's game is the 13th meeting all-time between Ball State and Central Michigan ... The Chippewas own a 9-2-1 record all-time against the Cardinals, including two victories last season in Mount Pleasant ... In the regular season, Central Michigan claimed a 3-0 victory over Ball State in the conference opener ... The Cardinals suffered a 1-0 defeat at CMU in the first round of the 2009 Mid-American Conference Tournament ... In the evenly matched tournament contest, the two teams both tallied 11 shots with both goalkeepers posting four saves ... The Chippewas got the game-winning goal from Amanda Waugh in the 60th minute of action ... Ball State is 0-5-0 all-time at Central Michigan in program history.
Sunday's contest marks the 11th meeting all-time between Ball State and Eastern Michigan ... The Cardinals lead the all-time series by a 5-3-2 margin, including a 5-1-2 mark over the past eight seasons ... Last year, Ball State claimed a 3-0 victory over the Eagles in Ypsilanti ... The Cardinals out-shot EMU by a 15-9 margin, including 8-3 in the first half ... Megan Ridley, Emily Rein and Jacki Eft all scored goals in the victory ... Ball State is 3-1-1 all-time in Ypsilanti.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters the weekend with a 4-7-0 overall record and a 2-2-0 mark in Mid-American Conference action ... The Cardinals are coming off of a 1-1-0 weekend after defeating Bowling Green 1-0, before falling to Toledo 4-3 ... BSU has scored 16 goals this season while allowing a league-high 31 goals against ... The Cardinals have had 11 players find the back of the net this season and 10 players tally assists ... Senior midfielder Megan Ridley leads the team and is third in the league in scoring with 10 points ... Ridley has scored a team-high four goals and handed out two assists ... Junior forward Jacki Eft is second on the team with seven points, including a team-high five assists ... Eft is tied for second in the MAC in assists and is tied for seventh all-time for assists in a single season in BSU history, just two behind the record.
In goal, freshman Nicole Wood has played a majority of time and owns a 2.49 goals against average with a 4-4-0 record on the year ... Wood was stellar in the loss to Toledo as she tallied a career-high 12 saves.
Scouting The Chippewas . . .
Central Michigan enters the weekend regionally ranked as the Chippewas are 9-3-0 on the year and 4-0-0 in Mid-American Conference play ... CMU has opened MAC play with four straight wins for the second year running and has notched a program-record seven straight shutouts heading into the weekend ... The Chippewas have not allowed a goal in 662:09 of action with Michigan State (Sept. 6) the last team to score a goal against CMU ... Laura Twidle leads the team and the MAC in scoring with 16 points as she has tallied seven goals and handed out two assists ... Molly Gerst is second on the team in scoring with five goals ... In goal, Shay Mannino has been strong as she owns a 0.75 goals against average, which is second in the MAC.
Scouting The Eagles . . .
Eastern Michigan enters the weekend with a 6-4-2 record overall and a 2-0-2 mark in Mid-American Conference play ... The Eagles have scored 16 goals and have allowed a MAC-low nine goals ... EMU posted wins last weekend over Buffalo and Kent State ... The Eagles will host Miami Friday ... Ashley Rodrigues and Chelsea Detrick are tied for the team lead in scoring with nine points as they have both scored four goals and dished out an assist ... Eastern Michigan has used two goalkeepers this season with Maggie Manville owning a 0.45 goals against average in 600 minutes of play while Monique Budani has a 0.93 goals against average in 580 minutes in goal.
Moving Up The Charts . . .
Senior midfielder Megan Ridley leads the team in scoring this season with 10 points, on the strength of four goals and two 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 tied for 10th all-time in career points with 27.
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 . . .
The Cardinals continue their four-game road swing next weekend as they travel to Ohio and Akron.
