Central Michigan University Athletics
One-Off Weekend for Chippewa Soccer
9/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A bit of a change in the approach for the Central Michigan women's soccer team as it heads to Youngstown State for a non-conference game on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Chippewas (0-2-1) will play just one match on the road trip as opposed to the customary Friday-Sunday two-match setup.
They return to action on Thursday, Sept. 10, with a non-leaguer at Michigan, then entertain DePaul in their home opener on Sunday, Sept. 13. Youngstown State is 2-2.
"When you have more games in a weekend you actually have to try to share the load in terms of how physically demanding that is," CMU coach Peter McGahey said. "But with only one game, we'll be able to run the race car pretty much at open throttle."
The Chippewas dropped two matches on their road trip to Nebraska last weekend, falling 4-3 in double-overtime to the Cornhuskers on Friday and 1-0 at Creighton on Sunday.
"You're still, as a team, developing your identity so to speak," McGahey said. "Like, 'These are the things that we do really well, these are the things that we don't do well. So how do we do more of this and less of that?'
"You're sort of hanging your hat this week on the real positives that we saw and trying to continue to sharpen your saws this weekend. I think a lot of it right now is trying to find a little bit of legs and some consistency in what we're doing. We're firmly in the process of discovering who we are."
Smantha Maher leads the Chippewas with two goals and four points, while Kaelyn Korte has three points (one goal, one assist).
Freshman Zoie Reed has started the past two matches in goal for the Chippewas, and has recorded 23 saves (.706 percentage). The Chippewas have been outscored, 7-5, in their three matches and, despite surrendering four goals at Nebraska, McGahey said he has been most impressed with his team's defensive upside to this point.
"As a team collectively, defensively, we're doing very, very well," McGahey said. "It's basically a reconfigured backline and goalkeeper. And I think we're developing a really positive identity in terms of understanding how to defend to our strengths. That's not a surprise to me, but I think how they're finding their feet with different personalities has been really quite rewarding.
"And I think the second piece is there are glimmers of really positive and constructive attacking soccer that we've seen in fits and starts over the last two years. There's some momentum there and certainly some players who can get after it with the ball the way that we want to."
