The Ball State soccer team's game at Eastern Michigan was its opportunity to gain or at least maintain its fourth seed in the Mid-American Conference standings.
Eastern Michigan was 2-5-1 in conference play heading into the game and was a team who started the season winless for nearly two months.
In its second worst loss by goal differential, coach Craig Roberts said the 5-1 defeat Friday was his team's worst performance of the season.
"The girls did not arrive today," Roberts said. "It was one of those games where everything went wrong. Nobody put in a good performance as far as I was concerned. Usually you just have one or two [players who have a bad game], but it was just an off day for the complete team."
Eastern Michigan didn't wait long to start the blowout.
In the 2nd minute of play, the Eagles started their attack. Chelsea Detrick found some space and shot from 10 yards out. The Cardinals' blocked the first attempt, but the rebound fell to Bianca Rossi. She didn't miss her opportunity and put Eastern Michigan up 1-0.
Another bounce when Eastern Michigan's way in the 20th minute. Ball State defenders blocked another attempt, only to have Rossi get the ball and deposit it into the net for her second goal of the game.
Junior co-captain Brigit Reder tried to keep her team in the game in the 29th minute. She put in one of her patented headers off a corner kick.
But Eastern Michigan didn't let up. Goals in the 33rd, 55th and 87th minute sewed up the game and gave Ball State its worst loss since Illinois beat them 5-0 Aug. 26.
Roberts said his team had a good week of practice. He had no explanation for the performance. He just said the team is looking for a chance to get better before Sunday's game at Central Michigan.
"For whatever reason we came out and things didn't go right," Roberts said. "Maybe it was the transition from turf to glass. I don't know. It is so uncanny for us to give up that many goals. We just need to get our heads back on for Sunday and rebound and come back from it."
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