Butler (6-1) defeated Ball State (2-4) 3-0 Sunday afternoon. The Bulldogs defense held the Cardinals to one shot through the entire match.
“So much of it was just effort," head coach Josh Rife said. “They were beating us to every 50-50 ball, winning every tackle. There were moments where we had a chance to make a play, and they just out-worked us.”
Butler put up 19 shots, with three of them finding the back of the net.
The Bulldogs first goal came in the sixth minute, from sophomore forward Abigail Isger. The second score came from junior defender Gretchen Skoglund in the 24th minute. The final point came in the 55th minute off a penalty kick from senior midfielder Katie Soderstrom.
Ball State’s only shot came from sophomore midfielder Avery Fenchel in the 35th minute.
“This definitely wasn’t one of our best performances, but the good thing is that we can learn from it," Fenchel said. “We got to take the simple things that we didn’t do well today and fix those to be ready for Mid-American Conference play.”
Rife hopes his team can right the ship entering MAC play.
“We have to work on two things.” Coach Rife said. “We’ve got to be technically sound, and we have to do it under pressure. John Wooden, one of his famous quotes is, ‘You have to play fast, but not in a hurry.’ We’ve got to get more comfortable playing at a higher tempo.”
Ball State takes on Eastern Michigan Sept. 23 at Briner Sports Complex. The match begins at 4 p.m.
Contact Nate Grubb with comments at nathaniel.grubb@bsu.edu or on Twitter @GrubbNate43
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