Soccer will play Dayton, Marquette this weekend

This weekend will be another  filled with demanding match ups for the Central Michigan women’s soccer team.

Last weekend, the Chippewas beat West Virginia, but were defeated by No. 6  Penn State 5-0.

On Friday, CMU will face the University of Dayton and take on No. 12 Marquette on Monday.

Head coach Neil Stafford said the opposition’s level of competition is not dropping anytime soon.

Throughout the week, the team has been correcting the errors made in their loss to PSU.

“We have to keep ourselves honest about the mistakes me make. Obviously, you can see from the score that Penn State punished us for our mistakes,” Stafford said. “I don’t think Dayton or Marquette will be any different.”

Stafford called Dayton a “direct team” that keeps a good pace and can move the ball forward.

With a 3-1-0 record, Dayton has racked up 79 shot attempts, with 40 of those being shots on goal.

A driving force behind the team is Juliana Libertin, a junior midfielder, who has taken 23 shots this season. This season, she’s scored five goals and added four assists.

“I’m not worried about the number of shots they take,” Stafford said. “I’m more concerned with their shots on target.”

Marquette stands at 2-0-0 after two of their games were canceled this season. The team has taken 41 shots, 20 of which have been on goal.

Despite their loss last week, the Chippewas outshot Penn State 21-11.

Twenty of the 47 shots CMU has taken this season have been on goal, led by junior midfielder Kaely Schlosser’s 13 attempts.

With the many shots taken, but the inability to get the ball into the net against PSU, junior midfielder Tory Kinniard said the team spent the week working on being able to finish those chances.

“We’ve been working hard as always and concentrating on getting the ball in the net,” Kinniard said. “Our goal is to take the mistakes we made and fix them.”

Regardless of the team they are playing, Stafford said CMU continues to stick to their core principles and philosophy.

Kinniard said the Chippewas will be facing very good and athletic teams.

“Both are going to be challenging, but I think we can stick with them,” Kinniard said.