CMU falls to Buffalo despite promising start
Central Michigan soccer set the tone fourteen minutes into the game, scoring first against Buffalo who lead the Mid-American conference in New York on Thursday.
However, the Bulls took advantage of a penalty kick shortly after ripping the lead from the Chippewas.
Buffalo (12-1-3, 6-0-3) came out on top, clinching their Mid-American Conference tournament spot with a 2-1 win over CMU (2-10-4, 1-5-3).
“Towards the end, we started to push more numbers,” said head coach Jeremy Groves. "And we then caused them a couple of problems towards the end of the first half. Although obviously losing 2-1 isn't great, I'm really proud of everybody's effort tonight. I think they did a really great job against a really quality opponent.”
Junior defender Matilda Melin and junior forward Elizabeth Chlystun worked together to put CMU up 1-0 in the first half. Chlystun assisted Melin who hit the bottom right corner.
Four minutes later, the Bulls capitalized on a penalty kick as freshman defender Ellie Simmons faced off against freshman goalkeeper Emma Shingler. Simmons' shot went right past a diving Shingler and into the bottom right corner to tie the game at 1-1.
“(Scoring first) it really gave us confidence,'' Groves said. “This is just a really tough one to swallow I think after doing so well against a really good team.”
Despite back-to-back saves by Shingler, Buffalo came back within a minute and took a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes remaining. Freshman forward Katie Krohn hit the bottom right corner on an assist by graduate student Cashlin Copley and sophomore forward Jasmine Guerber.
Shingler had her second-best performance of the season with nine saves, allowing two goals.
“I thought (Shingler) was outstanding tonight,” Groves said. “All the simple things she did well tonight. Not only did she do the easy things well, but she also made some really good saves for us, and you know like we need when we go play a really good team. We needed a good performance from her too and that's what she gave us.”
The Chippewas are back at home on Sunday as they take on Kent State at 1 p.m.
