After suffering two disheartening losses last weekend, the Lady Lions find themselves in a must-win situation if they hope to keep their dreams, and make it to the NCAAs.
The Lady Lions fell from No. 3 to No. 5 in the NCAA rankings this week after last weekend’s two near misses. The Lady Lions gave No. 1 Old Dominion a run for their rank, in a 2-1 loss on Saturday. On the other end of the scale, the Lady Lions lulled through their 2-1 loss to No. 4 North Carolina.
“We had a bad weekend,” senior co-captian Jen Stewart said. “We put our selves in this position, but we have the talent to rebound.”
The rebound process begins this weekend as the Lady Lions travel to Michigan State, and will also square off with No 17 Northwestern while there.
“We had a great week of practice,” junior Chris McGinley said. “If we play like we practiced, we will have a great weekend. As for the rankings, we don’t pay much attention to them. We just have to play to win.”
It wasn’t a lack of talent that beat the Lady Lions, and the individual stats reflect that. Despite the drop in the team ranks, the individual statistics still rank among he tops in the Big Ten.
Freshmen goalkeeper Shelly Meister is currently ranked second among the conference’s goalkeepers. She has a seasonal save percentage of .837, and already has five shutouts to her credit.
On the other end of the stick, junior Chris McGinley has been topping the scoring records for both the Lady Lions and the Big Ten. McGinley, last weekend scored a pair of goals, making her the fourth all-time scorer in Lady Lion history. She has 51 career goals, and just passed her Coach Char Morett at 50.
McGinley is also chipping away at the record for the number of goals scored in a single season. She has 21 this season, and the standing record is 24. The Lady Lions still have two weeks in the regular season.
In the Big Ten, the junior has maintained a steady third behind two players from first place Iowa. The stats, however, are not important to McGinley.
“Those are just numbers,” McGinley said. “They don’t mean anything to me. What is important is that the team wins.”
It’s safe to say that the Lady Lions have put themselves in a must win situation for the rest of the season, if they hope to get a buy into the NCAA tournament.
“We did not have to abandon our goals,” junior defender Becca Main said. “We just have to concentrate on them more, and that starts with this weekend. We will just take it a step at a time from there.”