Eastern Michigan’s women’s soccer lost a pair of road matches this week against Toledo and Ball State with final scores 4-1 and 3-0 respectively. The two losses drop Eastern to 5-10-1 overall and 2-5 in the conference. Eastern has yet to pull off a victory away from home since an early season matchup against the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since, Eastern has lost seven straight games on the road.
Toledo struck first and fast in the Eagles first match of the week. The Rockets scored a goal in the third minute of the match on a cross from right to left that beat Goalkeeper Kaylin Williams to the post. Forward Peyton Davis scored for the Eagles in the 36th minute to tie the game 1-1. This score held true till halftime. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the second half was owned offensively by Toledo. The Rockets took off offensively securing three goals in the second half to earn themselves a 4-1 victory. Toledo’s offense proved to be too much for the Eagles’ defense to contain.
Eastern took on Ball State Friday the 13th in Muncie, Indiana. The match would be a true horror for Eastern as they found themselves on the losing end of a 3-0 shutout. Eastern’s offense struggled from start to finish, only getting two shots off in the course of the whole match. Similar to the match against Toledo, Eastern conceded a goal within the first five minutes of the match. This time, Ball State would score just a minute and 48 seconds into the match. The score would remain 1-0 until late into the second half when Ball State scored two goals in the 72nd and 82nd minute.
Playing away from home has troubled the Eagles all season long. This week was no exception to the recent struggles. With only four matches left in the season, Eastern is running out of time to solve their road issues. Luckily for EMU, the team returns home to Scicluna Field for a pair of home matches against Western Michigan on Oct. 19 and Northern Illinois Oct. 22.
