Of those games, few were harder to bear than the last 35, in which the Chippewas posted a 9-26 record, including 1-12 in the Mid-American Conference.

“It is extremely frustrating and it is very difficult,” Jonker said. “It is hard to see us not play to our full potential.”

CMU’s last losing season came in 2006, the only time in the program’s 31-year history that has happened. This year’s team is on pace for the worst record in the school’s history.

“It is a bad year and everyone acknowledges the fact that teams have bad years,” Jonker said. “People are still very excited about the program because we have a strong history.”

The strong history Jonker spoke of was one that saw the Chippewas earn an overall record of 981-554-5 before this season. The team also has 11 MAC Championships and has won eight conference tournament titles.

Coming into this year, Jonker said her team would be a great hitting team, but inconsistency has kept the bats quiet.

“I thought we were going to be a pretty good hitting team and we are not,” Jonker said. “Our biggest thing is that we haven’t been able to put all parts of the game together at the same time. Some days our pitching is good but our hitting struggles and other days our offense is good and our pitching or defense doesn’t come through. We just haven’t been able to get it all together.”

One of the most important roles of a coach is to maintain a positive outlook and attitude, Jonker said.

“I think they are very frustrated and they don’t understand because we never expected this to happen,” she said. “I am trying very hard to keep some semblance of order and trying to maintain perspective. We need to turn this program back around and think positive. When you are winning, it is a whole different atmosphere and environment.”

While Jonker tries to keep the team positive, the players turned to each other to ride out the tough season.

“We have all come together and relied on each other to get through it,” said junior outfielder Christina Novak. “We are all in this together and we need to stick with each other to be a team.”

Novak, in her third season with the team, has been around long enough to taste some of the past success. In her first year, CMU went 27-20 and last year it finished 25-20.

“It is frustrating because we have the talent, that’s not the issue,” she said. “It is frustrating to go from winning every game to losing every game. It is just one of those things that sometimes you don’t have an answer to.”

Novak said some of the toughest feelings to bear are those that come while walking off the field after a loss this year.

“It is kind of like a feeling of ‘it happened again – you have got to be kidding me,’” she said. “You just sit there and say we need to do this and that for next week.”

Despite a season that has yet to crack double-digit wins, freshman infielder Molly Coldren thinks giving up on the season is not an option.

“It is discouraging sometimes because we know we are better than we are playing, but we can’t win them all,” Coldren said. “I would never throw in the towel. I could never do that because I just don’t have it in me to do that.”

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CMU hosts a doubleheader against Buffalo starting at 1 p.m. today at Margo Jonker Stadium, followed by the second game at 3 p.m.

CMU also hosts Kent State at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

KSU’s lineup has a different look than Buffalo’s. Coach Margo Jonker said Buffalo (18-19 Overall, 1-9 MAC) is a team built on solid base-hitting players, while Kent State (17-17 Overall, 8-1 MAC) utilizes its power.

“Buffalo is not a power-hitting team, they are a singles-hitting team and we can’t let them string those hits together,” she said. “Kent State has good hitting potential; they can have power but so can most of the other teams we play so that is nothing that is new to us.”

However, the two teams are statistically similar in a number of categories. Both having 28 doubles and five triples. Buffalo is hitting .210 on the season and has 185 hits. Kent State has 188 hits and is batting .221.

The difference between these two teams is in the home run department. The Golden Flashes have hit 21 home runs while the Bulls have managed to hit only five.

“Kent State doesn’t intimidate us because we know that they, just like any other team, can be shut down,” said senior second baseman Kim Cozat. “If we score our runs and play our defense behind our pitchers then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Kent State also has a pitcher, junior Kylie Reynolds, who Jonker described as “unique” because of the pitches in her pitching arsenal.

“Kent State also has an inside curve ball pitcher, which not many people have,” Jonker said. “The inside curve is a unique pitch that not many people have and you don’t get to see it very often.”

Reynolds owns a 14-10 record with a 1.82 ERA in 29 appearances on the season.

“All of our pitchers throw a curve ball and we hit off of them so there is no problem hitting that,” Cozat said. “We just have to look for our pitch and decide what we want to hit. If we don’t want the curve ball, then lay off it.”

Buffalo has two pitchers that have handled the load for the team for the majority of the year. Freshman Terese Diaz has earned a 9-9 record and leads the team in strikeouts with 133.

“I think that a lot of times you go up against a pitcher you don’t know what to expect,” Jonker said. “So in a way, inexperience as a pitcher can be a benefit if they are a good pitcher because the opposing team doesn’t know what they have.”

Despite the team’s struggles this season, Jonker said the team can still salvage the season.

“We are not looking to play the spoiler,” she said. “We want to get into the tournament. At this point in time the bottom line is for us to win games and get into the tournament.”

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MSU’s Kelly Confer singled to bring home the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the eighth inning after CMU took a 6-5 lead heading into extra innings.

The Chippewas started the scoring at their first at-bat when Jill Schulz doubled in Katie Greenman for a 1-0 lead.

In the second inning, Kim Cozat’s double was followed by Molly Coldren’s second home run to give CMU a 3-0 lead.

“Our hitters did a nice job getting out early in the count and getting the early lead,” said coach Margo Jonker. “We made great contact for the most part with most of our hitters.”

Senior pitcher Ali Pettit came out strong with two no-hit innings until Melanie Bensema placed a single into left field in the bottom of the third.

In the top of the fourth, Amanda Patrick hit Cozat home by way of an error from center fielder Jessica Bracamonte. A double by Amanda Klosterman sent Cozat in for the Chippewas’ fifth run and put them up 5-0 at the end of four. That is where the score would remain until the bottom of the sixth.

In the sixth inning, the Spartans fought back and put five runs on the scoreboard.

Pettit was replaced by Kim Campbell, but her day was not done. Campbell only lasted five hitters and gave up two runs, which tied the game at five. Pettit then retook the mound and got Kelly Confer to fly out to center field to end the inning with two runners on base.

MSU loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh inning, but CMU forced extra innings.

CMU regained the lead in the eighth inning when Patrick singled to center, allowing Cozat to cross the plate for the third time to make it 6-5.

“We played well today. We came back when they scored their runs but they came back in the eighth,” Jonker said. “We just couldn’t hold on in the eighth inning – the pitching just couldn’t hold on.”

To start MSU’s half of the eighth inning, Lindsey Hansen hit a screaming line-drive double that caromed off Coldren’s glove and into shallow centerfield. It put runners at second and third.

“We did a great job and made great contact at the plate,” Jonker said. “We also made some excellent plays on defense. Softball is a game of inches and the inches weren’t there for us today.”

CMU plays a two-game series against Eastern Michigan in a battle of the MAC West Division’s bottom teams. The series begins at 2 p.m. Saturday and concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday at Varsity Field.

“Both of our teams are struggling right now so it is going to be important for us to come out and get some wins against Eastern Michigan,” said coach Margo Jonker. “They are a scrappy team and they are always fired up to play us. I anticipate some awesome competition because we both need some wins.”

Eastern Michigan (13-22 overall, 1-7 MAC) has lost four consecutive games overall and six consecutive in the MAC.

However, the Eagles boast six players who have scored 10 runs. In comparison, CMU only has two.

EMU junior Jenny Scherer’s eight home runs through 35 games leads the MAC.

“We will try to make sure that she doesn’t beat us,” Jonker said of Scherer. “She is a good hitter so it will be mostly situational.”

Eastern Michigan sophomore Jaclyn Caro has struck out 33 batters looking, which is tied for fourth in the conference. Caro has two saves in 10 relief appearances.

“We will attack her like we do with anyone else,” Jonker said. “We will find out her go-to pitches and swing early in the count.”

The pitching matchup for game one likely pits Caro up against CMU senior Ali Pettit. Pettit (5-11) has 70 strikeouts in 104.2 innings. Caro (8-8) has 84 strikeouts in 106.2 innings.

Jonker said it is important that her team scores the first run in each game this weekend.

“I think that our hitters are going to come out and score runs,” Pettit said. “Eastern is a team that we see a lot from playing summer softball and I think we are going to score a lot more runs than they are.”

CMU center fielder Christina Novak said the team needs to keep its guard up despite the Eagles’ MAC record.

“We can’t go in there thinking that because they are 1-7 that they aren’t going to beat us,” she said. “Anybody can win any game.”

Pettit said this could be a intriguing matchup because both teams will be playing with a sense of urgency.

“Right now we both are sitting at the bottom of the MAC and neither team has anything to lose but I think that we have been working really hard to overcome the obstacles in front of us,” she said. “We have nothing to lose so we might as well come out and fight as hard as we can.”

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First up is Akron on Friday, with games beginning at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The Chippewas will then head to Athens, Ohio, to play Ohio University at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

Akron’s Julie Boyes has hit six home runs and driven in 19 RBIs on 29 hits this year.

“It depends on the situation how we will pitch to her,” Jonker said. “If first base is open, we will pitch around her so she can’t get the key hit that might hurt us.”

Ohio has four hitters with more than one home run.

“We want to get ahead in the count and make the hitter swing at our pitch and keep them off balance,” said senior Ali Pettit.

Pettit acknowledged the struggles at the plate for CMU, but she is not ignoring the pitching troubles.

“We just need to come out strong and hit the ball,” she said. “Hopefully, our pitchers will do the best they can to keep runs off the board as well.”

Junior Christina Novak said the key to coming away with a successful weekend is playing one inning at a time.

“We need our pitching to come around and we need everyone to step up to the next level because that is what it is going to take,” she said.

The Zips are 18-13 overall and 1-3 in the MAC coming into the weekend. Ohio enters the weekend at 10-15 with a conference record of 0-4.

Jonker said CMU’s 8-0 loss to Oakland on Wednesday was a wake-up call.

“I think that we are refocusing after because that was certainly not a good outing,” she said.

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Freshman Courtney King started for the Chippewas but was replaced after just two innings. She allowed two runs (one earned run), two hits and walked four batters.

“We are not getting it done in the box or the circle,” said coach Margo Jonker. “We didn’t pitch well. We threw too many pitches down the middle.”

King’s day ended after she gave up a two-run home run to senior infielder Caitlin Lynch, who led off the third inning. Sophomore Kim Campbell took the circle for CMU in the third inning and allowed two more runs on junior Haley Emerson’s double and junior Ashley Sullivan’s RBI single.

Jonker said the team failed to follow through on its game plan to break out of its offensive slump.

“We wanted to get ahead of the batter and offensively we wanted to score the first run,” she said. “I think we faltered in a number of areas, but without scoring runs it doesn’t really matter. You have got to score runs no matter what, bottom line.”

The game remained 4-0 until the top of the fifth inning, when junior Anne Cicchini knocked two runs in with a single. She advanced to third base on an error by freshman left fielder Ashley Gilson. The Golden Grizzlies added two runs in the sixth inning on four hits.

Campbell allowed six runs on nine hits and walked three in four innings.

“She got behind in the count and threw the ball down the middle too much,” Jonker said. “She also walked too many people.”

Brittini Merchant was perfect from the plate despite the team’s struggles. She went 2-for-2 and walked once.

“She has put in extra time hitting in the last week and that has paid off,” Jonker said.

Sophomore Amanda Patrick said she felt embarrassed because she thought her team was better than it showed.

“We are better than they are,” she said. “Coach said that if they were to recruit any of us we probably wouldn’t have gone there because we are such a better school than that one. So, that was pretty embarrassing and we are not proud of it.”

King picked up the loss in the game which dropped her to 0-3 on the season. OU’s Jessica Granger improved her record to 8-8.

The Chippewas will try to bounce back when they play Akron and Ohio in back-to-back doubleheaders starting Friday in Akron, Ohio.

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The senior women’s basketball guard is one of eight players who will compete at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in a 3-point contest as part of ESPN’s 21st annual Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships. The event is held at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

“I feel really honored just to go out there and get to represent Central,” Chan said. “It means a great deal to me, the coaching staff and my teammates.”

In a 80-70 win against Toledo on March 3, Chan shot her way into the CMU record book, making her 78th 3-pointer of the 2008-2009 season. She passed Jodi Culbertson’s mark from the 1999-2000 season for the most in a single season.

Chan added 14 more 3-pointers to her record and ended the season with 92.

Coach Sue Guevara said she believes Chan is one of the best 3-point shooters she has worked with in her nine-year head-coaching career.

During her time at Michigan, Guevara worked with Alayne Ingram and Molly Murray, both of which she considered top 3-point shooters.

Chan finished her career with 171 career 3-pointers, which ranks second in school history. Chan averaged 14.3 points and 2.9 3-pointers per game her senior season. She earned honorable mention All-Mid-American Conference honors for her efforts.

Despite the season being over, Chan continued to work on her shot while slightly modifying her approach to adjust to the contest.

“I still have been training hard and shooting a lot,” Chan said. “This competition could last anywhere from one minute to four minutes, depending on how good I do. I have been working off the racks and I have never done that in my life. It feels a little different but I got used to it over the last two weeks working with the coaching staff.”

Guevara and the rest of the team will travel to Auburn Hills to support Chan.

“I am really excited and I am a little nervous,” Chan said. “I think being nervous helps me focus a little bit.”

ESPN will televise the competition starting at 9 p.m. Thursday, via tape delay.

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Game one of the doubleheader starts at 2 p.m. today at Margo Jonker Stadium.

Oakland is fresh off a 2-1 series win against the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which saw OU out-score UMKC 12-6.

The Golden Grizzlies (10-18 overall, 4-5 Summit League), average 3.71 runs a game, compared to CMU’s 2.71.

“I know that they are a feisty team and I know that they put a lot of players in and out of the game,” said CMU coach Margo Jonker. “I think that they are a solid club so we need to be on top of our game.”

CMU struggled offensively over the weekend against Ball State and Miami University. In four games, the Chippewas were shut out twice and scored just one run in another, going 1-3 on the weekend.

Jonker stressed the importance of the team’s mental concentration when players are in scoring position.

“We need to get runners on base,” she said. “We have been doing a good job of that but we need to take advantage of the opportunities that we have to score runners when they are in scoring position.”

Senior Jessica Granger, who has 99 strikeouts in 17 appearances (7.56 per game), will likely pitch for OU.

“Granger is a rise-ball pitcher so she will throw the ball up in the zone and we have to make sure we swing at strikes and lay off the balls,” Jonker said.

Granger also leads the team with seven wins and 91.2 innings, 52 more than the next highest OU pitcher.

In four games this past weekend, senior Ali Pettit pitched 24.2 innings, including 10 in a 6-5 win against Ball State on Friday.

Jonker said she has yet to decide whether Pettit will take the mound against Oakland. Junior Christina Novak said she has faith in the other pitchers on the roster anyway.

“Our team should always be confident regardless of who is in the circle,” Novak said.

A year ago, the Chippewas swept two games from Oakland, 5-2 and 3-0.

“When you have beat a team before, there is always confidence that comes from that,” Novak said. “We can’t go into this game thinking that just because we have beaten them that they can’t beat us.”

Pettit said each individual must perform well in their respective role.

“I think that we are all on this team for a reason,” she said. “I think that our defense is going to step up and play well behind whoever is in the circle.”

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The Chippewas will host a doubleheader against Ball State starting at 1 p.m. Friday at Margo Jonker Stadium.

Ball State is a team with a lot of speed, said coach Margo Jonker.

“Speed is their biggest asset both on offense and defense,” she said. “Because of their speed on offense, they can run the bases well and on defense they can get to the fly balls well. Speed leads to good coverage on defense.”

Ball State (9-13) has stolen 34-of-48 bases this season. The Cardinals also lead the MAC in triples with seven in 21 games.

CMU will also play a two-game series against Miami with games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.

Miami (13-12) is a good hitting team and has added a new pitcher, freshman Jessica Simpson, who Jonker said should help out its pitching situation.

“Their pitching and hitting have gotten stronger,” she said. “Their coaching staff is returning from last year and they have gotten to know their staff better.”

After starting the season with a 6-11 overall record, Jonker said the team is looking at the MAC schedule as a new season.

“We are going to start all over from scratch again with MAC games,” she said. “Failure happens in the game of softball. It’s how you react to the failure. I wouldn’t say that 6-11 is a stellar record but it’s now a question of how we react to that going into the MAC.”

The Chippewas will rely heavily on senior pitcher Ali Pettit, one of only three healthy pitchers on CMU’s roster. Pettit will take the mound to open up the weekend against the Cardinals.

“Hopefully it won’t be a problem,” Jonker said. “Hopefully Ali will have a very good weekend.”

Junior outfielder Christina Novak said she has faith that the defense will step up to compensate for the team’s lack of pitching depth.

“We definitely need to have flawless defense and our hitting needs to be on,” she said. “Not just one person, but the whole lineup needs to hit. We need to string some hits together and that is how we will counter our pitching depth.”

Novak leads the team with four home runs, which ranks third in the MAC. Her four home runs tie her career high from the 2007 season. She has already passed her final mark of two home runs last year with 28 games remaining in the regular season.

“I have just been trying to relax and focus on what I have been doing when I was hitting the ball so I can carry it over to these games,” Novak said. “At the end of spring break I struggled a little bit, so I hope I can get back to that.”

The Chippewas swept the season series from Ball State in 2008, but were upset 3-2 by the Cardinals in the first game of the MAC Tournament.

“For those of us coming back from last year, we have a rivalry with Ball State,” Novak said. “Last year will play a factor in our heads a little bit but we are going to go into this thinking it is a new year.”

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The woman’s basketball team put an end to Toledo’s four-game winning streak with an 80-70 win Tuesday at Rose Arena.

“It was a really nice win for us,” said coach Sue Guevara. “Like I have said before, we bounce back after a loss and we did that here tonight with a big win against a pretty good basketball team.”

CMU’s 10-2 run closed out Toledo, which came within two with three minutes, 30 seconds remaining.

“In the last minute I was confident,” senior Angel Chan said. “Then after Latisha (Luckett) got that steal, that is when I knew we won the game.”

The Chippewas fell behind 7-2 early after Toledo freshman Naama Shafi’s scored five points in the first two minutes. The Rockets maintained the lead until a layup by Britni Houghton tied the game at 17. Houghton was fouled on the play, and she hit the ensuing free-throw which put CMU up by one.

CMU (16-13 overall, 8-7 Mid-American Conference) held the lead for nearly nine minutes. At one point, the Chippewas led by as much as 10, 31-21, at the 7:07 mark. Toledo battled its way back, tying the game at 35-35 with just 2:15 remaining in the half. The teams were tied 39-39 at halftime.

The second half began with three lead changes in the first six minutes. CMU fell behind 50-49 after a jumper by Toledo’s Melissa Goodall with 14:06 remaining. The Chippewas came back to tie the game up 53-53 at the 10:18 mark of the half. From that point on, CMU held the lead despite a 7-0 run by the Rockets.

“In that last timeout we took with about three minutes left, I looked at them and told them that we are going to win this ball game,” Guevara said. “I thought that our players were very composed tonight.”

Brandi Baker led the team and tied the game-high with 22 points. Baker also led all players with seven rebounds and was one of four Chippewas that reached double-digit points. Shafi scored 22 points to lead the Rockets in scoring.

“I truly felt, in my opinion, that we saw the freshman of the year in the Mid-American Conference in Brandie Baker,” Guevara said. “I thought that she had a tremendous all-around game. She put us on her back when we needed the shots down the stretch.”

With the win, CMU avoided its third consecutive season sweep by Toledo.

The Rockets (17-11, 11-4 MAC) were second in the MAC West standings before their loss to CMU.

“Today we came out to be the spoiler,” Chan said. “That is what we did, we spoiled the game for them tonight.”

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