A good start does not always promise a good ending.
The women's soccer team started out the 2008 season by winning their first four games and has since found themselves winless in the past 13 contests. The streak continued with a pair of losses over the weekend to conference rivals Toledo and Bowling Green. The Bulls fell to Toledo, 2-1 on Friday, and were bested by Bowling Green, 3-0, on Sunday.
"A win is a win, and I'll take it any way I can get it," said Toledo head coach Brad Evans in a press release. "Style points really don't matter at this point in the season, but getting those three big points does."
The Bulls (4-9-4, 0-8-2 Mid-American Conference) were dominated in the first half as the Rockets (13-4-0, 8-2-0 MAC) outshot Buffalo 13-0. Toledo's offense was on fire as they racked up scoring chances all over Buffalo territory from the start of the match. The Rockets' first scoring opportunity came in the seventh minute of the first half as Toledo junior Ali Leak sent a quick shot over the Buffalo net from about five yards out.
Minutes later, Leak blew past the Buffalo defense and rushed down Buffalo territory on a breakaway down the right side where she took a shot and once again missed the net wide.
Toledo took a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute as Toledo freshman midfielder Jaimie Morsillo scored her first collegiate goal.
Morsillo beat Buffalo senior goalkeeper Amy Coron on a low shot off a pass she received off a corner kick from Rocket junior forward Molly Cornwell. This was the only goal Toledo's powerful offense managed to record in the first half even though most of the first 45 minutes were spent in the Buffalo end.
The second half started as the rain continued to pour down and Toledo continued to pour on the offense. In the 64th minute of play, the Rockets doubled their lead as Cornwell took a pass in traffic and blasted a shot high over Coron that found the back of the Buffalo net. The goal came off of a pass that resulted from a Buffalo foul.
With the Rockets showing no sign of slowing down or letting any momentum slip to Buffalo's side, Bulls sophomore midfielder Lindsey Bailey had other ideas.
Less than a minute after Toledo's second tally, Bailey took a pass from senior forward Brooke McCalla and ripped a shot off of the fingers of Rocket freshman goalkeeper Vicki Traven that bounced off the crossbar and into the net to pull the Bulls within one. The goal was the first allowed by Toledo in their last 375 minutes of competition.
Buffalo continued their aggressive swing towards offense and almost tied the score on another shot by Bailey. Bailey made her way past a couple of Rocket defenders and found herself one-on-one with Traven on a breakaway. Traven attacked Bailey in an effort to cut down the shooters angle to the net. Bailey, with little time to think, took aim, shot high, and hit the post sending the ball off to the side.
Toledo's defense and goalkeeping in the second half proved to be as solid as their offense was in the first. Buffalo managed to outshoot the Rockets seven to three in the final 45 minutes of play, with two coming from senior forward Andrea Vescio.
"Buffalo applied quite a bit of pressure on us in the second half, but we kept our composure and we're able to make enough stops defensively," Evans said. "This was a solid overall win for us."
After the loss to Toledo, the Bulls headed to Bowling Green on Sunday hoping to end their winless streak.
As the game began, the Bulls came out strong but were put down quickly due to the Falcons scoring two goals in the first half. In the 12th minute, Gina Rossi fired a hard ball from 12 yards out, passing Coron into the back of the net. Minutes later, Bailey nearly had a chance to tie the game as she hit a hard shot that went wide of the left post.
With four-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, Kristin McDonald put a header into the far right side of the net from six yards out, putting the Falcons up by two.
In the second half, the Falcons increased their lead by one. Corbie Yee, taking a pass from Megan Amann, got another ball past Amy Coron, adding insult to injury for the Bulls.
Buffalo head coach Michael Thomas was proud of how his team presented itself after they fell to one of the best teams in the MAC.
"We came out against a very good Bowling Green team," he said. "We think they are a team that has very good chance to be the representative for the MAC in the NCAA tournament."
With only one regular season game left for the Bulls, Thomas believes that it becomes more important about the way in which the women handle themselves both on and off the field.
"We have to make sure that we keep fighting and respecting each other here at the University at Buffalo as we finish out the season," Thomas said.
The Bulls have one more chance to earn their only MAC win of the regular season on Thursday when they travel to Kent, Ohio to take on the Golden Flashes. The match against Kent State is set to begin at 3 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
