Ball State Soccer's performance during its first home game in 19 days, coincidentally the Cardinal's senior day, did not disappoint.
The team's first goal was scored under three minutes into the first half by junior Delaney Caldwell. Regardless of this, the Cardinals went scoreless for the remainder of the half, despite aggression from juniors Emily Roper and Addie Chester.
After a weekend of victories, including one against Big 10 foe Michigan, Ball State was coming into this game hot, making a quiet half uncharacteristic.
And then they proceeded to score six goals in the second half, setting a program record for the second-most goals in Ball State soccer history.
“I think the first half we were struggling to find a rhythm and then 14 seconds into the second half, the floodgates kind of opened,” Chester said, who scored two goals and had one assist on the game.
The metaphorical floodgates did open, with goals from players across the Cardinal lineup, showcasing talent and depth.
Junior defender Acadia Murphy and graduate student Avery Fenchel each walked away with a goal and an assist, while freshman LG Moncrief and sophomore Kaelyn Valleau chipped in with goals of their own.
On top of her one goal, Caldwell assisted three of her teammate's goals, two of them being Chester's.
“My goals were super easy. I probably could have stood there and they would have hit me and gone in,” Chester said. “ … Any day, any one of us can create something. It’s awesome.”
Chester said head coach Josh Rifes's encouragement before the game, including a pep talk mentioning leaving it all on the pitch in honor of the senior class, propelled them to victory today.
In terms of his senior class, Rife said he could not be more proud of them as players, but more importantly as people.
“They're 10 out of 10 people … They are unbelievable people, unbelievable teammates and they're great friends. They do all the things well,” he said. “This is a group that has definitely left a very impressive legacy, and then really left their imprint on our program.”
Senior Kaitlyn Fraser said the senior-day victory was bittersweet.
“It's scary. I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do after this, and this might be my last season playing soccer,” she said.
On the season Fraser has picked up one assist but has a large, veteran presence on the team. In terms of the team's current momentum and win streak, Fraser said it was exciting but that there was still more work to do.
“I think there were a lot of things that we did really, really good this game, but I think there are some things that we need to fine-tune and fix as well,” she said. “I think we need to be learning from those moments, but then also taking the moments that we were great today and just continuing to do that and work with each other.”
The Cardinals have room to learn as the young season continues, but they have accomplished some feats to be proud of too.
Now 4-2 on the season, Ball State faces one more team out-of-conference before beginning Mid-American Conference (MAC) play.
Rife said this fact has not been lost on his team.
“I mean, as great as today was, we said the same thing after Michigan … It's exciting, but you got to go prove it the next day and so I think that's what's going to be really important for our group is how do we, how do we manage this success and how do we now continue to show up and do the work to allow us the opportunity hopefully to get another result on Thursday,” Rife said.
The Cardinals remain home to face IU Indy Thursday, Sept. 12 at 4 p.m.
Contact Trinity Rea via email at trinity.rea@bsu.edu or on X @thetrinityrea.
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