Ball State University Athletics
Soccer Travels To Buffalo And Kent State This Weekend
October 14, 2010 | Soccer
What's On Tap . . .
Ball State wraps up the road portion of the 2010 regular season this weekend with their longest road trip of the year ... The Cardinals travel to Buffalo Friday night at 7 p.m. before meeting Kent State Sunday at 1 p.m. in Mid-American Conference action.
Series History . . .
Friday's game marks the 12th meeting all-time between Ball State and Buffalo ... The Cardinals hold a slim 6-5-0 record all-time against the Bulls, including wins in the past two seasons ... Last year, BSU also made the trip to the Empire State as the Cardinals came home with a 1-0 lead over Buffalo ... The Cardinals scored the game's lone goal in the 57th minute as defender Brigit Reder scored off a free kick.
Sunday's game marks the 13th meeting all-time between Ball state and Kent State ... The Cardinals own a 6-4-2 mark all-time against the Golden Flashes, including a 2-4-0 mark all-time at Kent State ... Last year, the Golden Flashes ran off to a 4-0 victory over the Cardinals as KSU scored two goals each half and out-shot BSU 20-10.
Last Time Out . . .
Ball State is coming off of a hard fought 3-3 tie in double overtime last Sunday against Bowling Green ... The Cardinals rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 second half lead but BGSU scored the game-tying goal in the 83rd minute ... Ball State out-shot the Falcons by a 27-21 edge and held a 10-2 advantage in corner kicks.
Sophomore Paige Stroinski scored the Cardinals' first goal of the game in the 61st minute as she scored on a rebound of her saved penalty kick ... Sophomore Shaniece Thorpe scored her first career BSU goal in the 78th minute to tie the game and senior Missy Gordon gave the Cardinals the lead just 2:20 later with her third tally of the year ... BGSU got the game-tying goal as Alyssa Zucaro scored her team-leading eighth of the year.
Scouting The Cardinals . . .
Ball State enters the weekend with a 6-7-1 overall record and a 0-5-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play ... The Cardinals have posted a 4-5-0 record on the road this season, including an 0-3-0 mark in league play ... BSU has scored 18 goals in 14 games while allowing 24 goals against.
Redshirt sophomore Sarah Orisich leads the team with seven points (3g, 1a) and all three of her goals have been of the game-winning variety ... Senior Missy Gordon is tied for the team lead with three goals while freshman Paige Stroinski has scored six points (2g, 2a) ... In goal, sophomore Aubrey Buehler has played 918:33 minutes and owns a 1.47 goals against average ... Freshman Layne Schramm has a 2.14 goals against average in 378:04.
Scouting the Bulls . . .
Buffalo enters the weekend with a 1-12-1 overall record and an 0-5-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play ... The Bulls have tallied their victory over St. Bonaventure and have tied Western Michigan ... Buffalo has scored eight goals in 14 games while allowing 34 goals against.
Megan Abman leads the team with six points on the year as she has scored a team-high three goals ... Natasha Arana is second on the team with five points (2g, 1a) and Lindsey Bailey is third on the squad with four points (1g, 2a) ... In goal, Ainsley Wheldon has played a majority of time in goal and has a 2.33 goals against average in 1195:04.
Scouting the Golden Flashes . . .
Kent State enters the weekend with a 1-8-4 overall record and a 0-5-1 mark in Mid-American Conference play ... The Golden Flashes have defeated Florida Gulf Coast this season and have tied Northern Illinois ... Kent State has scored 11 goals in 13 games while allowing 24 goals against.
Jessecca Gironda leads the team with 12 points on the year on the strength of five goals and two assists ... Kelly Heaton is second on the team with seven points (3g, 1a) while Megan Repas leads the team with three assists ... In goal, Kelly Sherwood has played 1154:54 minutes and has a 1.79 goals against average.
Coming Through In The Clutch . . .
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Sarah Orisich entered the 2010 season without a goal on her resume and she went the first five games of the year without finding the back of the net ... Orisich quickly remedied the problem as she scored goals in three straight games and all three of her goals have been game-winning varieties ... She leads the team and the Mid-American Conference with three game-winning goals ... She scored the game-clinching tallies in the 103rd minute of action at Southeast Missouri, the 34th minute at Western Kentucky and most recently the 72nd minute at Duquesne.
Quick Start . . .
Ball State posted a 6-2-0 start under first-year head coach Craig Roberts ... The three straight season-opening victories marks the fourth time Ball State has accomplished the feat and the first time since 2004 ... BSU also opened the year with three straight wins in 2000 and 2001 ... The Cardinals' 6-2-0 record through eight games is their best mark to this point since 2005 when BSU opened the year 8-1-0 on its way to a 15-3-2 overall record.
MAC Weekly Honors . . .
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Abby Milillo was named the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Week Monday (Sept. 20) ... Milillo, who entered the game with four career points, scored a career-high five points as she was involved in all three Ball State goals as she scored two goals and handed out an assist on the game-winning tally ... She scored unassisted in the 24th and 71st minutes of action for her first multiple goal game of her career and the Cardinals' second multiple-goal contest of the year.
Sophomore defender Brigit Reder was named the Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Week (Sept. 6) ... Reder becomes the first Cardinal to garner weekly honors since Rachael Murphy earned the accolades October 15, 2007 ... She anchored for the Ball State defense this season and has helped the Cardinals open the year with a 4-2-0 record ... She also helped BSU post two shutouts this season through six games.
On The Air With The Cardinals . . .
Ball State athletics and BSU SportsLink will televise the October 22 game against Eastern Michigan at the BSU Soccer Field ... The game will be broadcast online at www.ballstatesports.com, CardinalVision 5, Comcast channel 81 (tape delay) and Fox College Sports (tape delay).
Head coach Craig Roberts will hold his weekly radio show Monday evenings from 6-7 p.m. on 91.3 WCRD FM and online at www.ballstatesports.com ... Roberts and selected players will talk about the program with hosts Luke Baran and Kevin Thurman ... Also, all home games will be broadcast on WCRD and online.
Quick Attack . . .
Earlier this season, the Cardinals picked up a 3-0 victory at IUPUI (Aug. 27) ... Senior midfielder Missy Gordon gave Ball State the early lead as she scored an unassisted goal just 30 seconds into the contest ... The goal is the fastest goal ever scored by Ball State to open a game surpassing the previous mark by 21 seconds ... Former Cardinal Emily Rein scored just 51 seconds into the game September 24, 2006 against Buffalo ... Gordon's goal is also the fastest goal scored so far this season in the Mid-American Conference.
Fresh Faces . . .
Ball State has 15 newcomers on the 2010 season with 11 freshmen and four transfers ... Joining the Cardinals as freshmen are Maggie Hamilton, Kelsey Shapiro, Kaisa Bjorn, Robyn Miley, Sarah Pawelko, Alyssa Peterson, Brittney Graham, Maimee Morris, Michelle Blok, Layne Schramm and Sammy Scaringelli ... Senior Danielle Rogers and sophomore Aubrey Buehler transferred into BSU from Tennessee-Martin after playing for head coach Craig Roberts last year ... Also, junior Amanda Willke (East Stroudsburg) and sophomore Shaniece Thorpe (West Va. Institute of Technology) have joined the program after transferring.
New Face At The Helm . . .
Head coach Craig Roberts became the fourth head coach in Ball State history last spring after serving the past four seasons as head coach at Tennessee-Martin ... Roberts opened his Ball State career with three straight wins, becoming the first coach in BSU history to accomplish the feat ... He joined former coaches Ron Rainey and Michelle Salmon with a win in their first career game as BSU head coach.
Roberts has a 40-34-13 overall record, including 29 wins over the past three years ... He led UTM to an Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship last fall ... Joining Roberts on the sideline this fall is assistant coach Rachel Napoli who was on his staff at UTM ... Also, Chris Westrop and Stephen Woodward have joined the staff as volunteer assistant coaches.
Looking Ahead . . .
Ball State returns home to close out the 2010 regular season with three straight games ... The Cardinals will host Eastern Michgian, Central Michigan and Toledo to close out the year.
