Central Michigan University
Illinois State
Chippewas Fall to 0-2 With Loss at Illinois State
8/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
NORMAL, Ill. - Tough season-opening weekend for the Central Michigan women's soccer team.
Hannah Leinert scored two goals Sunday as Illinois State handed the Chippewas a 5-1 loss at the Redbirds' Adelaide Street Field. CMU fell to DePaul, 2-1, Friday in its opening game.
In four of the last five years, Illinois State has both won the Missouri Valley Conference championship and appeared in the NCAA Tournament. DePaul also earned an NCAA Tourney bid in 2013.
"We've seen two very good programs, both with a history of success," second-year CMU coach Peter McGahey said. "Exposing ourselves as a young team to that level of competition never hurts you. When you strive for excellence sometimes there's bumps in the road."
The Redbirds, who opened the season Friday with a 4-1 win over Northern Illinois, outshot CMU, 25-4. Paige Jarsombeck and Emily Dickman also scored for the Redbirds. CMU scored an own-goal 6 minutes into the match to open the scoring.
Emily Cooksey scored on a penalty kick for CMU with under eight minutes to play. Maddy Bunnell made 12 saves in goal for the Chippewas, who play at Detroit on Sunday, Aug. 31, then entertain Oakland in their home opener on Friday, Sept. 5.
"Maddy Bunnell did a really good job in goal," McGahey said. "She did a good job of weathering the storm and maintaining her composure throughout.
"The reality is (Sunday's) performance is not acceptable and not something we want to create habits from. To be honest we weren't very good against a good team, but we're going to learn and grow and we're going to get better.
"The good part is we come back with four days of training before we face Detroit next Sunday. We'll get back to work , get things polished up, and look forward to Detroit next Sunday."
