Soccer Rolls Past NIU for Eighth Straight Win

Friday, October 16

Dekalb, Ill.

8:00 PM

Ball State University

11-2-2, 7-0MAC

Northern Illinois

2-12-0, 1-6MAC

Team	1	2	Final F
Ball State	2	2	4
Northern Illinois	0	0	0

October 17, 2015 | Soccer

Box Score Box Score

By: Ball State Athletics

DEKALB, Ill. -- From the standpoint of offensive production, the Ball State soccer team has been very much a second-half squad in 2015.

During the first seven games of their current winning streak, the Cardinals scored 13 of their 16 goals after the intermission. They flipped the script Friday while running the streak to eight games, which is tied for the longest in the nation.

Ball State (11-2-2) scored twice in the first nine minutes at Northern Illinois and rolled to a 4-0 victory, continuing its best ever Mid-American Conference start at 7-0 in league play.

Chelsy Swackhamer provided scoring bookends with a pair of goals Friday night. In between, Abbie Boswell broke the Ball State freshman scoring record and Lorina White also added a goal. Elaina Musleh assisted on two of the four scores.

“We talked about coming out of the blocks quickly,” Ball State coach Craig Roberts said. “We felt like that was something we needed to address. It was a focus of ours to start fast and take the game to NIU, which the girls did very well.”

Swackhamer struck first in the fifth minute off a Kalynn Flanagan cross. Boswell then backed it up less than four minutes later when she rebounded a saved shot from Musleh to push the lead to two against the Huskies (2-12 overall, 1-6 MAC).

It was Boswell's eighth goal of the year, breaking what was previously a four-way tie atop the school's all-time freshman scoring chart. The record-breaking goal came in somewhat of a home game for the Woodridge, Ill., product, who played in front of family and friends. Boswell and Swackhamer now lead the team with eight goals each.

The two first-half scores were more than enough for goalkeeper Alyssa Heintschel and the Ball State back line, but the Cardinals weren't done quite yet. White added an insurance goal, her fourth of the year, in the 49th minute. Then Swackhamer's second goal of the night pushed the lead to four in the 61st minute.

“We were able to play everyone tonight, and I was pleased with the way we did a complete job of finishing the game off,” Roberts said. “I thought Elaina and Kalynn were great in the midfield, and we also got nice performances off the bench from players like Alessandra Fistrovich and Erin Greeley.”

Heintschel made three saves on the way to Ball State's fifth shutout of the season and second in the past three games. The Cardinals out-shot the Huskies by a 17-5 margin for the game.

“There were a lot of physical, late challenges tonight, but we maintained our composure, remained strong and did what we needed to do,” Roberts said. “NIU is a big threat on set pieces, and we did a very good job of dealing with those on a consistent basis.”

Ball State tied the program record with its eighth straight win, matching a 2006 streak for the longest in school history. The Cardinals are one of four teams in the country with active eight-game winning streaks (Princeton, George Washington and Samford).

Among Ball State teams, only the 2005 group had a better record at this point of the season than this year's 11-2-2 mark. That squad was 12-3 through its first 15 games.

The Cardinals are five points clear of Western Michigan atop the MAC standings and will travel to face the Broncos at 1 p.m. Sunday. WMU is 5-1-1 in conference play after handing MAC East Division leader Miami its second league loss Friday.