Chippewas looking forward to rematch with Miami

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The Central Michigan women’s soccer team is a part of the remaining four teams in the Mid-American Conference tournament.

At No. 3, CMU defeated No. 6 Northern Illinois (9-9-1) 2-1 on Sunday to advance to the semifinals.

The win marks the third consecutive year CMU has advanced to at least the second round of the MAC tournament.

Up next is a rematch against No. 2 Miami (13-6-2), which ended No. 7 Akron’s season 2-0 on Sunday. The two teams will play Friday in Toledo, Ohio.

“We’re going to have to play extraordinary,” said head coach Tom Anagnost.

An offensive-minded team, Miami leads the MAC in goals, points, shots and assists.

“They have great forwards,” said junior defender Liesel Toth. “We can’t take them lightly.”

In a previous meeting, CMU defeated Miami 2-0 on Oct. 1 in Oxford, Ohio, in arguably its best road performance. It outshot Miami 17-10 while scoring in the eighth minute to eliminate the RedHawks home advantage.

Senior goalkeeper Shay Mannino played all 90 minutes in net and made five saves to earn the win.
The win gives the team confidence going into the rematch, but it is tournament time and it expects Miami to come out more determined than last game.

“We played really well against them in the regular season,” said sophomore forward Laura Twidle.
“I think we need to go in expecting a harder game.”

A win against Miami would send it to the MAC championship game, scheduled for Nov. 7 in Toledo, for the second consecutive season and give the team an opportunity to repeat as conference champions.

The other two teams in the conference semifinals are the top seed Toledo Rockets (15-3-2) and No. 5 Western Michigan Broncos (9-6-5).

Other two teams

A struggling Toledo offense found a way to pull out a 1-0 win against No. 8 Ohio (6-9-4) to end the Bobcats’ season. A UT conference championship would be the team’s fourth in school
history.

Freshman forward Nicole Gyurgyik scored her third goal of the season during the 76th minute to lift the Rockets past Ohio.

Western Michigan upset the No. 4 Eastern Michigan (9-7-5) 4-2 in penalty kicks on Sunday in Ypsilanti to advance to the semifinals against Toledo.

The game went scoreless into extra sessions and continued until penalty kicks.

With the shootout tied at 2, junior forward Chelsea Detrick attempted to give her team the lead but WMU senior goalkeeper Julia Francy kept it tied.

Sophomore defender Kelsey Baskins put the Broncos up 3-2 and Francy responded with another save. Sophomore forward Anina Cicerone added the clinching goal to make it 4-2.

Both conference semifinals games are set for Friday with the championship game Sunday.

The winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.