Women’s soccer will host Pittsburgh, travel to U-M this weekend

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The Central Michigan women’s soccer team puts its 26-game home unbeaten streak on the line at 5 p.m. Friday when it hosts the University of Pittsburgh at the CMU Soccer Complex.

Then, it travels to Ann Arbor for a game at 6 p.m. on Sunday against the University of Michigan.

After playing the previous four games on the road, the team looks forward to be back playing on its home turf.

“It’s been great that we’ve done well on the road,” said junior defender Bailey Brandon. “But it’s definitely an advantage for us to be home this weekend.”

Although the Chippewas came away with a win and an overtime loss last weekend against two difficult opponents in Kentucky and Louisville, head coach Neil Stafford would still like to see his team focus on a couple of key aspects.

“I would like to see us mature a little bit more,” Stafford said. “I think things are going pretty good right now, but I think mentally and emotionally, I’d like to see us get a little bit stronger and just deal with adversity a little bit better.”

In order to prepare for Pittsburgh and Michigan, the team has been focusing on improving a lot of tactical issues this week in practice.

“We just need to clean up things technically and make sure that we’re having some great movement off the ball,” Brandon said.

Pittsburgh (1-3-2) comes off a 3-0 loss to Penn State last Sunday, looking to regain some confidence with a victory against CMU.

The Panthers are led by junior forward Ashley Cuba. She has scored four out of the team’s five goals so far this season.

CMU fell to Pittsburgh 2-1 in the only other previous meeting between the two schools back in 2001.

Michigan

Sunday’s meeting against the Wolverines will be the third ever meeting between the two programs.

Michigan has won the first two games by a score of 1-0 in 2003 and 4-3 in 2009.

Michigan (4-2) features a strong, balanced offensive attack while scoring 13 in goals in its first six games.

Leading the way for the Wolverines is sophomore Nkem Ezurike and junior Clare Stachel, who each have three goals on the season.

However, Michigan also looks to rebound from a 3-0 loss, but not Penn State, it lost to No. 24 Pepperdine last Sunday.

Six different players have scored this season for the Chippewas as they hope their scoring depth will be a major factor in the games this weekend.

“I think it’s definitely a huge positive impact for our team,” Brandon said. “If one of us is having an off day, another one (player) is going to pick up the slack, so I definitely think it’s a positive thing, because we are going to come at you from all angles.”

CMU will be hosting the first annual Maroon Across the Map Day at Friday’s game to celebrate the international diversity on campus.