Central Michigan University Athletics
CMU Soccer Opens MAC Slate at Rival Western
9/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - First Western Michigan, then Northern Illinois.
After that, Central Michigan women's soccer coach Peter McGahey will have a good idea of how his team stacks up in the Mid-American Conference.
The Chippewas begin MAC play on Friday at Western Michigan (4 p.m.) and will play at Northern Illinois on Sunday (2 p.m.). CMU is 1-5-1, the Broncos are 3-2-2, and NIU is 1-6.
"I think the MAC is going to be good again," CMU coach Peter McGahey said. "I think you see a lot of teams similar to us (in that they) go out and schedule themselves against quite good (non-league) opponents."
The Chippewas finished tied with Toledo for fifth place in the six-team West Division last season. Just three points - which a team receives for a victory - separated the bottom four teams in the standings.
"I think the MAC is going to be tight," McGahey said. "Like last year it came down to one point, one more goal, like those things and that is the detail. So I think you're going to see another season of every point in the MAC matter."
The Chippewas are coming off a 1-0 double-overtime non-conference loss to Illinois State last Sunday. It was CMU's second straight 1-0 loss and its third consecutive overall.
"I think the team is excited I think the team is eager to play," McGahey said. "I think the team is motivated to find out why and why we haven't found the results and to find those results.
"I think a motived and hungry team with that in mind is almost better than a team that's 'rah, rah, rah' and has false enthusiasm. I think there's a sincerity in what the team wants to discover that puts it in a good place."
The intensity will kick up a bit with Friday's match being the season opener and the fact that the opponent is Western. Though McGahey downplayed the rivalry aspect of the match.
"The Western-and-Central tradition is well established," he said. "I think in that rivalry game we try to take points from them. For me, we just try to take one game at a time and no one is bigger than anyone else and Western just happens to be first up. It happens to have a lot of significance so we'll embrace its significance and go out and try and do the best we can and go out and get a win on Friday."
McGahey said his team has made strides through its first seven games, three of which were against teams that are ranked in the top 100 in the RPI: Nebraska (33), Michigan (54) and DePaul (91).
A key heading into the MAC will be a more consistent generation of offense, McGahey said.
"We're able to do some of the things defensively," he said, "we're not giving away cheap goals, goals are earned and the goals we're giving away have some clear (factors) that we can adjust.
"I think offensively we're always trying to find some rhythm. The defense comes in first, then you have to build your attacking from there. I'd say that defensively I think we're very close and offensively we're tying to catch up."
