Soccer Opens 2009 Season In Sunshine State This Weekend
August 27, 2009 | Soccer
LIVE STATS (Sunday at Florida Atlantic)
What's On Tap . . .
The Cardinals open the 2009 regular season this weekend as they travel to the Sunshine State for contests at Miami and Florida Atlantic ... The weekend marks Ball State's second trip all-time to the state of Florida and the first since the 2007 season ... Both games will have live stats with links available at www.ballstatesports.com.
Series History . . .
Friday's contest against the Miami marks the first ever meeting between the Cardinals and the Hurricanes ... The game is also Ball State's first ever matchup against a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference ... Sunday's game is the second meeting all-time between Ball State and Florida Atlantic ... The two teams met in Boca Raton in 2007 with the Cardinals claiming a 2-1 victory over the Owls in the opening game of the FAU Kickoff Classic ... Goalkeeper Amy Cleeter recorded her first career victory as she played 52 minutes in emergency relief against the Owls ... The Cardinals opened to a 2-0 lead just 13 minutes into the second half with goals by Annie Aiello and Kristina Anderson.
Lovett Enters Second Season . . .
Head coach Michael Lovett enters his second season at the helm of the Cardinals ... Lovett, the third head coach in BSU Soccer history, posted a 9-10-1 record last season as the Cardinals finished seventh in the Mid-American Conference ... Under Lovett's tutelage, the Cardinals finished second in the MAC in shots per game at 15.44 and second in corner kicks at 137 ... Ball State also continued its strong play on defense as he was third in the conference in goals allowed as BSU limited opponents to just 19 goals in 20 games.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State opens the 2009 regular season this weekend and is coming off of a 9-10-1 record last fall in head coach Michael Lovett's first year at the helm of the team ... The Cardinals return 13 letterwinners from last season's team and welcome in 11 newcomers ... Leading the way for the Cardinals is their trio of captains in senior midfielder Megan Ridley, junior midfielder Cortney Coombs and sophomore defender Tina Vannatta ... Ridley, who earned First Team All-Mid-American Conference honors last season, is the Cardinals' returning leading scorer as she scored nine points on the strength of four goals and one assist ... She also led the team last year with three game-winning tallies.
Ball State took part in one exhibition contest this season and claimed a 2-1 victory at Xavier Aug. 17 ... The Cardinals scored two early second half goals to pick up the win ... Junior transfer forward Missy Gordon scored the first goal of the game while also handing out an assist on the second tally ... Freshman forward Paige Stroinski added the game-winning goal as BSU scored 12 minutes apart.
Scouting The Hurricanes . . .
Miami enters the weekend with a 1-1-0 record on the season ... The Hurricanes opened the year with a 1-0 loss to No. 8 Florida before picking up their first victory of the season with a 3-0 decision against Florida Gulf Coast ... Miami is coming off of a season in which it earned an NCAA Tournament at-large selection with a 10-9-3 record and return eight starters from that team ... Leading the attack for the Hurricanes is senior Brittney Steinbruch who paced the team with 16 points on the strength of eight goals ... Senior Lauren Singer was second on the team last season with 12 points ... Sophomore goalkeeper Vikki Alonzo has played the majority of the first two games this season and has a 0.55 goals against average.
Scouting The Owls . . .
Florida Atlantic enters the week with an 0-1-0 record on the season after dropping a 2-0 decision to Stetson in the season opener ... The Owls will face South Florida on the road Friday evening prior to facing the Cardinals ... Florida Atlantic was picked to finish fifth in the Sun Belt Conference after posting a 7-10-2 record last fall ... Laura Hyvonen leads the team after earning Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year honors last fall when she scored a team-high eight goals ... Senior Ashley Mannarino is second on the team in scoring last season with 15 points as she tallied seven goals and handed out one assist ... FAU will look to replace goalkeeper Jessica Badders who played all 19 games last season ... Freshman Ashley Lantes got the start against Stetson and allowed two goals while posting five saves.
New Look In Goal . . .
The Cardinals will have a new look between the posts this season after the graduation of Rachael Murphy ... Murphy was a three-year starter for the Cardinals and finished her career with the program records for wins (34) and shutouts (24) ... BSU has two goalkeepers on the roster this season in senior Amy Cleeter and freshman Nicole Wood ... Cleeter is the only Cardinal with collegiate experience as she has played four games with a 1.77 goals against average.
Transferring In . . .
Junior forward Missy Gordon joins the Cardinals this season after transferring from Marshall University ... Gordon was a two-year letterwinner for the Thundering Herd ... She finished third in scoring last season with 11 points as she tallied three goals and five assists ... The Carmel native played club soccer with junior forward Jacki Eft in high school.
Fresh Faces In The Crowd . . .
The Cardinals welcome in nine true freshmen to the team this season, marking 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 opens 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.
Cardinals Picked 10th . . .
The Ball State soccer team was tabbed to finish 10th in the Mid-American Conference preseason poll by the league head coaches ... The Cardinals, who finished seventh in the MAC last season, returns 13 letterwinners from last season and adds 11 newcomers ... Three-time defending MAC Tournament champion Toledo was picked to win the regular season and the Tournament ... Central Michigan was picked to finish second, Bowling Green third, Eastern Michigan fourth, Miami fifth, Kent State sixth, Northern Illinois seventh, Ohio eighth, Western Michigan ninth, Akron 11th and Buffalo 12th.
Looking Ahead . . .
Ball State returns to Indiana next weekend and faces two instate foes in Valparaiso Thursday, Sept. 3 and Purdue Monday, Sept. 7 ... Both games will be played on Purdue's campus in West Lafayette, Ind.
####
