Central Michigan University Athletics
CMU Soccer Plays Toledo, Looks to MAC Tournament
10/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The Central Michigan soccer team is headed to the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Where the Chippewas will play and who their opponent will be in Sunday's opening round won't be determined until Thursday night.
CMU closes the regular season Thursday (3 p.m.) with a MAC match at home against Toledo. The Chippewas are 6-9-2 overall, 5-4-1 MAC and have 16 points (three for a win, one for a tie), putting them sixth in the MAC standings.
The top eight teams make the league tournament, with the top four seeds based on points hosting first-round games. The top seed hosts the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed is home with the No. 7 seed, and so on.
Win or lose against Toledo (8-11, 4-6, 12 points), the Chippewas can do no worse than the sixth seed.
All 12 of the league's teams will play on Thursday, and there are any number of scenarios that will affect where the Chippewas are seeded, and where they will play on Sunday.
"Eleven of the 12 MAC teams can be influenced by the results on Thursday," CMU coach Peter McGahey said. "Regardless of how Thursday turns out, we are standing on our floor and our ceiling could go as high as a four (seed), so that's gives you a lot to play for.
"But to get to four, in the classic coaching jargon, we have to count on other people, so all you can do really is focus on us getting a good performance from the entire squad on Thursday to build (and) prepare for Sunday."
Ball State (27 points) and Western Michigan (25) are guaranteed home games on Sunday, while the third-sixth seeds will be claimed by Miami (Ohio) (19), Buffalo (19), Kent State (18) and the Chippewas, though the order is far from set.
Toledo could wrap up a tournament spot as the seventh seed with a win or a tie on Thursday.
McGahey said the mindset for CMU is simply to play well and get a win against the Rockets.
"You start getting into worrying, you start trying to finagle your seed in terms of where you are going to play, you really can't control that anyway because a referee's decision, the rain, the wind, some game six hours away can influence it," he said. "I'm not going to spend a lot of time with that. What I am going to tell the team is that our responsibility on Thursday is respect the game, respect Toledo, go out and try to put a good performance out there and see where the cards fall and then take Sunday when and where Sunday comes."
The Chippewas are coming off a 2-1 win at Ohio, which snapped a two-game losing streak. The Rockets come in riding a two-game win streak, having beaten Ohio, 3-0, and on Sunday they downed Kent State, 2-1, in overtime.
