Chippewas To Face Top Seed In Tournament Opener

Thursday, October 31

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

3 p.m.

Central Michigan University

7-5-4, 4-5-2MAC

Eastern Michigan

6-11-2, 5-6-0MAC

Eastern Michigan

Central Michigan

Photo by: Allissa Rusco

10/31/2019 6:21:00 PM | Soccer

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CMU soccer falls to Eastern in regular-season finale

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Not the way Jeremy Groves would necessarily have drawn it up.

But at this point, it's all about where you're headed and not how you got there.

The Central Michigan soccer team will open Mid-American Conference Tournament play on Sunday at Bowling Green after closing the regular season on Thursday with a 3-1 loss to Eastern Michigan at the snowing and windy CMU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex.

The Chippewas, in the tournament for the first time since 2016, are the No. 8 seed in the eight-team tournament. As the regular-season league champion, Bowling Green is the top seed.

Back to BG
The Chippewas fell to the Falcons, 3-2, in overtime in heartbreaking fashion on Oct. 10 in Bowling Green.

The Falcons scored with under a minute to play in regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime, and then won it with under a minute remaining in extra time.

"We were 35 seconds away from winning the game," first-year CMU coach Jeremy Groves said. "I think we take some belief into the game knowing that we can compete.

"Like I've said all along, this team, when we perform we can compete against anybody. I think that's the thing, that's the frustration of the past couple of weeks. If we perform like we can, to our potential we can beat anybody."

The Chippewas are 1-3-2 in their six games since their loss to Bowling Green and now stand 7-5-4, 4-5-2 MAC. Bowling Green is 12-5-2 and closed the regular season on Friday with a 3-1 victory over Toledo. The victory upped the Falcons' MAC record to 10-1 and gave them their second consecutive league regular-season crown.

Bowling Green is the defending MAC Tournament champion.

Thursday's Game
The Chippewas got a goal from Lauren DeBeau, her fourth of the season, in the 14^th minute in seizing the early lead against the Eagles. Cami Taylor earned her first assist of the season.

Eastern (6-11-2, 5-6-0) tied it with a goal in the 28^th minute and then went ahead, 2-1, with a goal in the 38^th minute. The Eagles got an insurance goal in the 61^st minute.

"It's really hard to come back when you're down and obviously that proved true today," Grove said. "Second half we were much better, I thought we ran forward and we created some chances, we just couldn't finish again in the end.

"The consistency is the big thing. I think at times in the second half we played really well today. It's a recurring theme. You go on down the line, second half's better than the first half. We've got to figure out as a coaching staff how we come out and perform in the first half."