Soccer team looks to continue its winning ways on the road

The Central Michigan women’s soccer team travels to play Evansville today at 7 p.m and Indiana State on Sunday at 1 p.m. after opening the regular season with a 1-0 victory over the Detroit Mercy Titans Aug. 19 at home.

The two meetings will be the first in school history against the two Missouri Valley Conference opponents.

After struggling a bit on the road last season, head coach Neil Stafford said he is not worried about his team’s preparation for any game.

“We have always done really well preparing the women to play — whether it is at home or away,” he said. “But these road trips are tough. This is a long bus ride this weekend and tough competition.”

This week’s practice was about sharpening up a couple of aspects hindering the Chippewas in the second half of last Friday’s matchup.

“We worked a lot on our own technical ability, working two to three yards and making crisp passes,” senior Chelsi Abbott said.

Going into this weekend’s games, Stafford and his team look to improve on passing and movement, taking care of the ball and increasing their speed of play.

Despite outshooting the Titans 6-1 in the first half and 12-5 overall, Stafford would like his team to stay consistent throughout the entire game.

“I felt as though the game got choppy against Detroit on Friday and it was a little bit disappointing to see that because we started off so well,” he said.

Nevertheless, junior goalkeeper Stefanie Turner only had to make one save throughout the game and the defense limited U of D’s scoring chances.

Evansville (0-1-1) comes into the weekend looking to rebound from a tough 4-0 loss to Saint Louis. Contrarily, Indiana State (1-1) is coming off a 2-1 victory over Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, where freshmen Marisa Windisch and Katrine Baker scored for the Sycamores.

Evansville’s offensive attack is led by sophomore Breanne Beine who notched seven goals and tallied two assists during her freshman season. Indiana State senior Alison Gasparovich is returning for the Sycamores after scoring nine goals last season.