Soccer Season Ends With MAC Tournament Loss

Sunday, November 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

1 p.m.

Central Michigan University

7-7-4, 4-5-2

Bowling Green

13-5-2, 10-1-0

Central Michigan

Bowling Green

Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf

11/3/2019 4:42:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Nick Vuylsteke, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan soccer team saw its season end on Sunday with a 4-1 loss to top-seeded Bowling Green in a Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinal game at the Falcons' Cochrane Stadium.

CMU finished 7-6-4 under first-year coach Jeremy Groves. The Falcons, who have won consecutive MAC regular-season titles, are seeking their second-straight MAC Tournament crown. They host the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 8 and then the championship game on Sunday, Nov. 10.

How It Happened
Bowling Green did all of its scoring during a 29-minute span, beginning less than four minutes into the second half and ending in the 78^th minute. The 4-0 deficit proved too much for CMU to overcome.

CMU sophomore Katie Coleman scored her first career goal in the 83^rd minute.

Bowling Green (13-5-2) finished with a 14-9 advantage in shots and had three corner kicks while the Chippewas had none.

CMU goalkeeper Zoie Reed, a senior playing in her final career game, made five saves.

The Falcons were "a little more direct" with their shooting in the second half, Groves said. "They did a lot better of a job attacking.

"In the first half, I thought we did a good job and stifled them a little bit. We did pretty well in the first half. We showed up, we worked hard. We frustrated them and created a couple of chances ourselves. But then, in the second half, once they got one goal, it was kind of disappointing that we gave up more.

"But we kept fighting at the end and scored a goal at the end of the game, so that's a positive."

End of the Season
Despite not reaching the goal of winning the conference tournament, there were still a number of positives, said Groves, who led CMU to both its first winning season and its first MAC Tournament berth since 2016.

The 2019 Chippewas lost six games after the '18 squad dropped 12.

"You look back over the course of the season and look at the results, outside of the last (regular-season) game against Eastern Michigan, we did OK," he said. "We never got blown out, the ball at times didn't bounce our way. It's disappointing that we lost today, but there's some positives to take out. I think there's some strides forward that we will be taking.

"The girls will have a little bit of time off, and we'll get back to it in January. We now know the standards and the hard work for what it takes to be one of the best in the conference."