Ohio women’s soccer is entering the heart of its Mid-American Conference schedule.
After facing two tough tests last weekend, the Bobcats (5-4-3, 1-2-1 MAC) will look to rebound this weekend against two teams below them in the MAC East standings, as they will travel to Akron and Buffalo.
Ohio will take the pitch Friday against the Zips (4-6-2, 1-3-0 MAC), who will look to jump the Bobcats in the standings. The Zips play a possession style game that has given Ohio trouble so far this season.
“Akron is a team very similar to us,” said coach Aaron Rodgers. “They like to keep possession of the ball; they are very possession-oriented, so I think they will be very organized and difficult to break down, especially at their field on a Friday night they are going to be up for that.”
Akron is a team that doesn’t score many goals, as they have scored jut three times during their past five games.
The Zips’ lone MAC win came against Miami, when Akron won 2-1 two weeks ago. Forwards Lani Smith, a junior, and Sarah Sivic, a freshman, lead the Zips, as they have combined to scored nine of Akron’s 15 goals this season.
Sunday, Ohio will continue its road trip, as they continue north to face Buffalo (4-5-2, 1-3 MAC).
A trip to Upstate New York should be familiar to the Bobcats, as earlier this season they traveled to and defeated Niagara 2-1. Similar to Akron, the Bulls are also in position to jump the Bobcats in the MAC standings this weekend, which gives Ohio extra motivation heading into this weekend.
“It makes me more excited cause those teams are the ones you have to put away,” senior midfielder Maggie Murnane said. “Those are the teams you can’t even think of letting them be the aggressor, you need to just stick it to them right in the beginning, don’t even give them a chance.”
Buffalo is a defensive-oriented team, as it has allowed just 10 goals this season, seven of which have come during the second half, which is when Ohio has scored 14 of its 19 goals.
However, the Bulls are lacking production on the offensive side, as they have scored just nine goals. Only senior forward Karen McMahon has scored more than one goal.
Rodgers will be looking for it to be a very physical game against the Bulls.
“Buffalo is a very hard-nosed team,” he said. “They can be very direct, but their very physical and hard-nosed, so that’s going to be a different challenge for us to be able to match that intensity. It’s very difficult to play at their place playing in the football stadium on turf, so it’s a unique environment that we’re going to have to deal with.”
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