Despite a milestone day for senior Anna-Lesa Calvert, UB women's soccer took a crushing hit Sunday, losing senior captain Natalia Crofut to a season-ending injury in a 1-0 loss to Central Michigan.
Crofut, a leader on the field and first on the team in every major offensive category, came out early in the match and is out for the remainder of her senior year.
"Natalia Crofut went down with an ACL injury early in the first half," said head coach Jean A. Tassy. "She's done for the season. The young players on this team will need to fill in."
While UB (3-7-1 overall, 1-3 MAC) was plagued by a season-impacting injury early in the game, a highlight came when Calvert accomplished a feat only a select group of MAC goalkeepers have before.
With her fourth save at Central Michigan, Calvert became the third goalkeeper in conference history to notch 300 career saves. She finished with six stops in Sunday's game at Central Michigan (4-5-2 overall, 3-0-1 MAC). Calvert leads the MAC in saves (63) and saves per game (.573) this season.
Calvert also placed her name amongst the most elite in school history, becoming the fourth Bulls goalkeeper to have reached the 300-career-save milestone, joining Rachelle Galipeau (334 saves), Nicole Pittaro (414) and Jaime Adams (340).
As for the Bulls as a whole, the team came out strong trying to rebound from a lackluster performance in Friday's loss.
"We played with a little more intensity than in our 3-0 loss to Eastern Michigan on Friday," Tassy said.
The Bulls were vigorous in the first half, out-shooting Central Michigan 5-3. While five shots were taken, UB was only able to put two of these shots on goal and both teams went into the first half looking for a break.
The break came at the 73:55 mark in favor of Central Michigan. The Chippewas took the lead as junior Laura Roberts scorched one into the top right corner past Calvert for her first goal of the season. A free ball in the Bulls' end landed on Roberts' foot at the top of the box via a feed from junior Rosamaria Rago, and Roberts cashed in on the opportunity.
Central Michigan played a stronger second half, out-shooting UB this time around by an 8-2 margin. CMU held off the Bulls the rest of the way in a physical 1-0 victory.
"It's a game of mistakes and it's about capitalizing on those mistakes," Tassy said. "We had some great opportunities. It just seemed that (either) an entry pass was too long or there was too much pace on the ball."
The goal itself seemed to be rejecting the Bulls as they had two shots hit the post.
"I think Ashley Turner hit one and so did Kelley Vander Mallie," said Tassy. "It's the nature of the game. Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes not."
The win extends the Chippewas' unbeaten streak to four games with CMU goalkeeper Anne Decker recording her 16th career shutout against the Bulls. Central Michigan remains undefeated in MAC play, sitting atop the conference along with Western Michigan, the other remaining undefeated team in conference play.
The Bulls still have some very important upcoming games to play in the MAC.
"Every game, every week is a huge game for us," Tassy said. "Every game in the MAC is a must-win for us."
Buffalo will bring that must-win attitude back home to kick off Homecoming Weekend as they host the conference-leading Western Michigan Broncos (6-4-1, 4-0 MAC) in UB Stadium Friday at 4 p.m. The Broncos are coming off of a 2-1 victory Sunday over Ohio and bring a five-game winning streak to Buffalo.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
