Heading into the last two weeks of the regular season, the Ball State soccer team's focus is on earning one of the top four positions in the Mid-American Conference standings.
Each of the top four seeds hosts a game at its campus site once MAC Tournament play starts. Only the top eight teams in the conference advance into the tournament.
If the tournament started today, four teams from the MAC West Division would host first round games. Toledo, Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Ball State, are the top teams in the conference, descending in that order.
Unfortunately for Ball State, as the team tries to maintain its current position, three MAC West Division opponents remain on the schedule. Ball State plays at Eastern Michigan Friday before traveling to Central Michigan Sunday and Toledo next week.
"Our goal is to get a home field advantage [in the tournament]," coach Craig Roberts said. "You can't really determine statistics on that [how many games Ball State needs to win], because you don't know who is going to win or lose around the conference. But obviously the objective right now is to win all of the games."
After struggling to score goals once again last week, the Cardinals play one of the worst defensive teams in the MAC. Eastern Michigan (2-5-1 in conference) ranks last in goals against average with 1.76 on the season.
Junior defender Skylar Chew said the team understands how important this stretch is for the team's future. Despite coming off a 0-2 loss to Kent State on Sunday, she said the team hasn't lost its confidence.
"I think the loss definitely stuck with us and hit us hard," Chew said. "But it came at a good time because now we kind of like a bottom. We are ten times more motivated to get these last few wins after the loss. I think it's just extra motivation and hunger for the upcoming weekend."
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