Women's Soccer Opens Mid-American Conference Play At Miami and Ball State

September 22 | Women's Soccer

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Game Notes (PDF)

At Miami (Ohio): Live Stats

WHATS AHEAD

The Zips open the 2016 Mid-American Conference portion of their schedule this weekend, with a road trip to Miami (Ohio) and Ball State. The Zips head to Oxford, Ohio, on Sept. 23 for an afternoon affair with the RedHawks at 4 p.m. On Sept. 25, the Zips have a match with the Cardinals in Muncie, Ind., at 1 p.m.

LAST WEEK

Akron closed out its non-conference schedule last weekend with a contest against Duquesne on Sept. 16. Despite a strong defensive effort by the back line, the Dukes came out on top, 2-0, over the Zips.

Sophomores Shea O'Brien (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio) and Erica Schrader (Blacklick, Ohio), along with freshmen Chloe Allen (Novi, Mich.), Julia Crowe (Ann Arbor, Mich.), and Ashley Amato (Pittsburgh, Pa.) paced the offensive efforts with one shot each.

Senior Annabelle Hegeman (Frostburg, Md.) made one save for the Zips in goal.

SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS

Through the non-conference portion of its schedule, Miami (Ohio) owns a 3-4-0 record through seven games. The RedHawks closed the book on the first half of the season with a win over Illinois, 1-0, but fell to Texas, 2-0.

Miami has tallied six goals in seven games in 2016. Olivia Winnett leads the RedHawks offense with a pair of goals, while four other players have garnered one goal. Kat Zalar leads the team with 12 shots with five on goal and an assist.

Vic Maniaci made six starts in goal for Miami. In over 500 minutes of work, the RedHawks keeper boasted a 1.16 goals against average, .863 save percentage, made 44 saves, and allowed seven goals.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS

The reigning MAC regular season champions, Ball State, sits in third place in the MAC western division heading into conference play with a 5-2-1 record. The Cardinals are coming off a two-game win streak with victories over Louisville, 1-0, and Morehead State, 4-0. BSU hosts Buffalo to begin MAC play prior to the match with the Zips.

The Cardinals 15 goals are second-most among MAC teams prior to conference play. Lorina White leads all Ball State players netting three goals, four Cardinals have tallied two goals, and another four have scored one.

Tristin Stuteville and Alyssa Heintschel have split the duties in goal for Ball State with four starts each. Stuteville (3-1-0) owns a .50 GAA, made 14 saves and allowed just two goals in 360 minutes, while Heintschel (2-1-1) has posted a 1.36 GAA, .792 save percentage, made 23 saves, and allowed six goals.

Series History

The Zips are slated to square-off with both the RedHawks and Cardinals for the 19th time in program history. Miami holds the advantage over Akron, 11-5-2, while Ball State owns a 10-2-4 record against the Zips. The last time Akron and Ball State met, the Zips eliminated the No. 1 seeded Cardinals from the MAC tournament in penalty kicks to advance to the semifinals. Akron's tournament run was then ended by the RedHawks, 1-0.

Coaches

Miami (Ohio): Bobby Kramig: begins his 20th season with the RedHawks women's team. Kramig has been running the program since the inaugural season and posted a 210-144-30 overall record.

Ball State: Craig Roberts: enters his seventh year at the helm of the Ball State program. Since taking over the program, he owns a 60-43-19 overall record and is 31-26-9 in the MAC.

Akron: Noreen Herlihy is in her second year with the Akron women's soccer program and owns a 9-17-2 record with the Zips (all-time 298-131-32)

A Look Back at 2015

The Zips, guided by Herlihy, finished the year with a record of 6-13-2 overall and ended MAC play with a 3-8 record. Akron found themselves in the eighth spot of the MAC tournament thanks to a three-way tie between Akron, Ohio and Bowling Green. The Zips advanced to the semifinal round of the tournament for the first time in program history in part to defeating No. 1-seeded Ball State in penalty kicks. Akron's season later ended in the semifinals with a 1-0 loss to Miami (Ohio).

Akron Notes

Allen Notched her first career hat-trick against Robert Morris (9/8) fifth in program history, first since 2013
Sivic now sits third-T overall in most career goals scored (16) and second in most career points (43)
Allen's five goals are tied for 8th most scored in a single-season
Amato, Baughman, Corrigan, Schrader all tallied their first career goal vs. CSU (9/4)
Corrigan also notched her first career assists vs. CSU (9/4)
Akron scored three unanswered goals in the second half vs. CSU to complete come from behind win (9/4).
Hegeman made season-high eight saves vs. Butler (8/28)
Freshman Chloe Allen scored first two collegiate goals against Green Bay (8/21)
Freshman Julia Crowe recorded her first collegiate assists vs. Green Bay (8/21)
Junior Sydney Schipani recorded her first collegiate assists vs. Green Bay (8/21)
Seven freshman started against Green Bay including the entire back line.
Akron returns 13 letterwinners from the 2015 squad.
New to the roster this year are 13 newcomers made up of 11 incoming freshman and two foreign transfers.
Assistant coach Rob Battisson is in his second stint with the Zips program. He was an assistant coach in 2007.
Three Zips' scored during Akron's lone exhibition match: Abby Gindlesberger, Sarah Sivic, Rachel Baughman.
All 22 available players for the exhibition saw action including eight newcomers.
Sarah Sivic is closing in on Akron's all-time career leader in goals (13-19) and one assist away from becoming the program leader in most career assists (11).
Sivic's six goals last year are seventh most in a season.
Sivic and Rachel Baughman posted four assists each last year and sit fourth all-time in mosts assists in a season.
In just her first year with the program, Annabelle Hegeman posted the second most saves in a season (85) and sits at sixth all-time in career saves (85).
Rachel Baughman, Abby Gindlesberger, Karin Norman, and Sarah Sivic all set a program-best 21 games played in a season last year.
Gindlesberger and Sivic also started all 21 of those games.