It was a rollercoaster weekend for the women's soccer team as it beat the Eastern Michigan Eagles on Friday, 3-2, and then fell to the Central Michigan Chippewas on Sunday, 1-0.
The Bulls (4-7, 1-3 MAC) were forced to come back against EMU (4-5-2, 1-3 MAC) in order to record its first Mid-American Conference win of the season. Buffalo saw itself down by two goals after about two-thirds of the first period was played. Ashley Rodrigues scored a goal in the 16th minute and Deana Kitner netted another for the Eagles at the 28th minute.
"We dug deep," said junior defender Courtney MacVie. "Everyone was supporting each other and that's how we win."
After that, sophomore Andrea Vescio put in the first of her two goals in the game for the Bulls. Vescio took control of the ball after sophomore Brooke McCalla's shot bounced off the crossbar to slash the Eagles' lead by one before halftime.
Vescio's second goal came in the beginning of the second half, off of a pass from junior Ashley Turner to tie the game.
Buffalo's game winning goal came via junior defender Amanda Corteau, with about seven minutes left in the contest. Corteau headed the ball past Eastern Michigan's freshman goaltender, Monique Budani, off of junior Katie Fage's corner kick. It was also Corteau's first goal of the season.
"We really showed the type of team we are with being able to equalize it and go ahead," said Buffalo head coach Jean-A Tassy. "It showed the fact that although we only have two seniors on our team, that we have a really strong psyche."
The Bulls out shot their conference foe 17-7 and had more corner kicks, 7-2. Both sides were fairly even in fouls as the Bulls had a slight edge, 11-10, with 16 of the 21 total fouls committed in the second half of play.
Vescio and Caitlin Higgins tied for the game-high in shots taken with four each. Maggie Christensen and Kitner recorded a pair of shots to lead the Eagles.
In its second game of the weekend, Buffalo saw itself in another game decided by a single goal. This time the Bulls happened to be on the wrong side of the score against the Chippewas (9-2, 2-2 MAC).
The first half of the game was a scoreless stalemate. Central Michigan only landed two shots on net and both teams combined for just six fouls in the period.
The second half, however, proved to be played at a higher tempo for the second straight game. This is when Buffalo committed seven of its 11 fouls in the match. It also saw the only goal in the game scored when Stephanie Martin got a shot past freshman goaltender Amy Coron, off a pass from Rosamaria Rago.
"It's always more choppy in the second half," MacVie said. "Everyone's more desperate for the win so it's more competitive. We need to hold on to the ball more on top. We were playing the ball in the air too much and we got pounded."
Although the Bulls held the advantage in corner kicks 5-3, Central Michigan was able to out shoot Buffalo, 16-5, in the afternoon. Coron made three saves in the contest while none of the Bulls' shots were on goal and thus CMU's goalkeeper Anne Decker finished not having to make a save in the shut out.
"It was a bit frustrating," said senior midfielder Jessica Roesch. "We can't win games without more shots. We weren't able to hold it long enough to develop a play and couldn't get good shots."
Tassy also was discontent with the team's shot total.
"I thought we had a couple chances but they were not on target," Tassy said. "Shooting is an attitude and you either have it or you don't. There is a lot of mental preparation to it. We just got to continue to prepare at practice for us to continuously be successful."
Martin had a game-high five shots while teammate Alison Heydorn took four as well. Buffalo saw five different players take one shot a piece against the Chippewas.
The Bulls will next travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan to face yet another conference opponent in the Western Michigan Broncos. The game is on Friday at 4 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
