Although the women's soccer team was determined to reverse their losing fortunes Friday night, the losses continued to stack up after a great start to the season.
The Bulls (4-4-2, 0-3 Mid-American Conference) fell to the Ball State Cardinals (6-5-0, 2-1 MAC) with a score of 4-1, extending their losing streak to four games. Buffalo won their first four games of the season but proceeded to go winless in their next six games.
Ball State scored their first goal after only 23 minutes of play, putting the Bulls in an early hole. Freshman forward Aubrey Stahl made sure the Bulls answered, putting the ball in the net 15 seconds before halftime, tying the game up.
"It was nice to see Aubrey Stahl get her first goal of her college career," said head coach Michael Thomas. "She scored a classical goal right before halftime to tie the game and we think that it is the first of many to come."
The team discussed their plan to try and regain control of the field during halftime.
"We discussed how to build some momentum off of our goal," Thomas said. "We discussed trying to get a little hold on the possession of the ball so that we could get some other people involved in the game."
However, Buffalo was not able to maintain their momentum in the second half. Ball State scored a minute into the half when Megan Ridley nailed a shot off a corner kick. The Cardinals would follow with another goal one minute later to put the Bulls down 3-1.
The Bulls were unable to answer Ball State's attack after mustering only two shots in the half. Ball State tested Buffalo senior goalkeeper Amy Coron with 10 shots in the half.
"It was a fair result," Thomas said. "We ran into a good team that has won the conference for the past two years and if you don't do little things right against teams like that, you won't get the result you need."
Ball State outshot the Bulls 17-5, pressuring Buffalo's defense for the full 90 minutes. Thomas recognizes this was the key to the Bulls loss.
"They just had more chances to score," he said. "They were able to generate more chances than we had."
After reviewing the last couple of games, Thomas knows what his team needs more work on.
"We need to become less reactive and anticipate to the ball better," he said. "We were moving to positions after the ball got there, and when you are covering as much ground as a soccer field covers, that is just not going to work."
Although the women's soccer team has been in a slump, the Bulls have a chance to regain their winning ways in the next few MAC games.
"Nobody likes to lose, but this is one game in the course of a long season. We have to regroup and try to get a win next time," Thomas said. "We just want to bring a work ethic and energy to all of our games. We believe that if we do that we are going to have success."
See Wednesday's issue of The Spectrum for coverage of Sunday's gave against Miami (OH).
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
