Women's soccer heads into MAC Semifinals

The Buffalo women’s soccer team is looking to win its first MAC Championship in school history.

After defeating Toledo 2-0 in the tournament quarterfinals, the No. 49 Bulls (14-2-3, 10-0-2 MAC) take on Ball State (11-6-2, 6-5-0 MAC) in the semifinals on Friday at UB Stadium. As the top seed, Buffalo will host all of the final four matchups, and would advance to Sunday’s championship round with a victory over the Cardinals.

“We understand what could happen this weekend,” said head coach Shawn Burke. “However, the coaching staff made sure to tell the team to take it one game at a time. It’s so easy to look ahead, but we made sure to let our girls know that we have to beat Ball State before even considering advancing. Focus on that.”

Burke was an assistant coach for the Bulls in 2011, which was the last time Buffalo advanced to the MAC semifinals. The Bulls lost to Toledo 3-1.

Buffalo defeated Ball State 2-1 in overtime Oct. 24 in the team’s lone regular season meeting. The Cardinals outshot the Bulls 9-4 and scored first, before the Bulls scored a second half goal and again in overtime to remain undefeated in MAC play.

“They threw different things at us, pushed the pace offensively, and worked up top,” Burke said. “We struggled with that and as a result, barely came away with a victory. It’s a luxury to have the game tape from that last game. It allowed us to see what we did wrong and we made sure to focus on those miscues in practice.”

The Bulls are currently on a six-game winning streak and have allowed just two goals during that span. The defense has only allowed 21 shots in its past six games.

“Our defense will certainly need to lead us to victory,” Burke said. “We pride ourselves on having a strong defensive unit, and last week was tough to watch. We have to adjust and make sure that we don’t give Ball State the same chances we gave Toledo last week, because they will score.”

Buffalo’s dominance this season has not gone unrecognized either.

The Bulls swept the major conference awards and earned eight All-Conference honors Thursday, highlighted by Burke winning the MAC Coach of The Year award in his first season.

He is the second Bulls head coach to win the award. In 2000, Jean-A Tassy won the award after leading Buffalo to the first MAC regular season championship in school history.

Senior forward Katie Roberts won MAC Offensive Player of The Year and junior defender Jackie Hall won MAC Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first players in school history to receive the honors.

Roberts leads the conference in goals (11), points (24) and game-winning goals (six) this season. Hall was the leader of a defense that has given up just 12 goals in 19 games this season. The Buffalo ‘D’ has allowed five shots on goal or fewer in 14 games.

That defense helped freshman goalkeeper Laura Dougall win MAC Freshman of the Year, as she set a program record with 12 shutouts and 14 victories to go with a conference best goals-against-average (0.37) and save percentage (.911).

Senior defender Courtney Mann was named to the All-MAC first team, along with Dougall, Hall, and Roberts. Sophomore forward Celina Carrero and senior defender Sophie Therien made the All-MAC second team. Freshman midfielder Julia Benati joined Dougall on the All-MAC freshman team.

“It feels great to be recognized,” Burke said. “The best thing about it was that it was a team effort. Sweeping the awards wasn’t possible without a team effort, our amazing coaching staff and even better support staff. It allowed us to focus on soccer and put together a great season. We hope to continue that run on Friday.”

Buffalo and Ball State kick off Friday at 4 p.m. at UB Stadium. Western Michigan and Northern Illinois, which finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the MAC, play after Buffalo’s game. The winners of each matchup will play for the MAC title at Sunday at noon.

email: sports@ubspectrum.com