After enjoying a lone home game and its first victory in Worthen Arena this season, Ball State University's women's basketball team is making plans for another long road trip this weekend.
After the Cardinals' 71-64 victory Tuesday against Eastern Michigan University, the team will attempt to win its fourth consecutive game to open the Mid-American Conference season when it travels to the University of Toledo on Saturday.
Despite facing another challenge on the road, Ball State acting head coach Lisa McDonald said the trip should not be as difficult as their last one, which ended in an 84-78 victory at Northern Illinois University.
"Any trip compared to that Northern Illinois trip seems easy," McDonald said of the longest trip her team will make during the conference season. "You have to deal with the time change, and that just takes a lot out of you. But Toledo is one of the hardest places to play in the MAC, if not the hardest. They have an intense crowd, and we know anytime we go to Toledo it's going to be a battle."
Ball State's home game Tuesday was its first since a Dec. 29 loss against Butler University. As refreshing as it was to play in the friendly confines of Worthen Arena after a long absence, senior forward Lisa Rusche said archrival Eastern Michigan felt even better.
"It was more who we played than where we played," Rusche said. "Knowing we could beat Eastern Michigan gave us a lot of confidence going into the remainder of our MAC West games."
With the absence of leading scorer Allie Clifton, who will be sidelined with a stress fracture in her foot, the Rockets will not be playing at full strength Saturday. In 13 games, Clifton is averaging 17.9 points per game and is the one player on Toledo's roster in double figures for the season. She is also the leading scorer in the MAC West Division and second in the conference behind Miami University's Amanda Jackson.
Without Clifton, who is also the Rockets' leading rebounder with 7.6 per game, McDonald said she expects Toledo to bring even more intensity than normal as its best player sits on the sidelines with an injury.
"They're coming in with something to prove," McDonald said. "We have to play with great intensity and great focus for the entire 40 minutes because they're going to be an inspired team. The key will be getting out to a quick start and scoring some easy buckets in transition early."
Each year at the beginning of the conference season, the Cardinals set their first goal to finish undefeated in their first round of MAC West Division games. Rusche said a win against Toledo, which would put Ball State one game away from its goal, could provide great momentum for the team as it enters the remainder of the season.
"You always want to win the road games because it's much easier when you play at home in front of your own fans," Rusche said. "To beat our MAC West opponents on the road would give us a big advantage later in the year when we play them at home."
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