TOLEDO, OH ? A goal by junior Molly Cornwell midway through the first half proved to be the match winner as Toledo recorded a hard-fought 1-0 win over Ball State. The Mid-American Confernce match was held at sunny and extremely warm Scott Park on Sunday afternoon.
Freshman Vicki Traven recorded the fourth shutout of her young collegiate career and the Rockets improved to 9-4-0 overall and 4-2-0 in the MAC. The Cardinals dropped to 7-7-0 on the season and 3-3-0 in the league.
"Any win is big, but at the same time you don't want to put too much significance on any midseason match," said Toledo Head Coach Brad Evans, whose team defeated the Cardinals for the first time since the 2002 campaign. "We needed points out of this match and we were able to three, which is great."
In a physical match that featured 25 fouls, BSU had the first scoring chance on a shot by Emily Rein in the fifth minute. The forward won a free ball about 20-yards out and blasted a shot to the far post that got over the head of UT's Traven and bounced off the cross bar. The visitors' Abby Millillo was on the doorstep to follow-up the near miss, but her attempt went right to Traven, who made the save.
The Cardinals seemed to have everything in the match under control until a defensive lapse in the 24th minute gave the two-time defending MAC tourney champs the lead. BSU was careless in clearing the ball out of its end of the field and UT freshman Jaimie Morsillo stole a pass. She then played the ball forward to junior Molly Cornwell, who promptly slid a left-footed shot past BSU's Rachael Murphy for the eventual-match winner at 23:45.
"This was an exciting, grind-out win," said Cornwell, whose tallied only one shot in the match. "Today was just a fight between two good, tough teams. It seemed like every free ball was a fight. They play a lot like us. Today was a good test for us and we were fortunate enough to come away with the win."
To start the second half, Ball State continued to be aggressive in its attack and nearly tied the score on another shot off the foot of Rein at 46:56. She had a step on the UT defense and rifled a shot from about eight-yards out, but UT's Traven was again in the right spot to make the save.
After dodging another bullet on the defensive side of the field, Toledo had its best scoring chance of the second half off a header by senior Tara Witt at 52:06. The Rockets' Cornwell angled a free kick into the middle of the BSU goal box and Witt out-jumped the opposition, heading it toward the back post. Unfortunately, a BSU defender deflected the ball just enough to cause it to hit the post and carom out of bounds.
Back and forth the teams battled for the remainder of regulation and BSU's Rein had yet another good scoring chance at 55:49. She beat a UT defender and was one-on-one with Traven. The forward fired a low shot that Traven made a nice diving save on to preserve the lead.
The Cardinals were still not done attacking and had still another chance to tie the score off a corner kick in the 67th minute. A BSU player played the ball in and Rein headed it toward goal. Toledo's Traven was off her line, but UT junior defender Megan Ginley cleared it out of danger and preserved the hard-fought win.
UT's last scoring chance came minutes later at 67:51 as freshman Kristen Lynn was against six-yards out and blasted a shot that BSU's Murphy made a diving save on.
The Cardinals held a commanding 20-6 advantage in total shots, with Rein taking six. BSU had five shots on goal to the Rockets' two. Traven, as mentioned, stopped all five BSU SOGs to earn the shutout, while Murphy made three saves.
"Both teams had plenty of chances this afternoon, but we were fortunate enough to make one more play than them," Evans said.
The Rockets return to action on Friday, Oct. 17 when they travel to Ypsilanti, MI to tangle with Eastern Michigan. The opening whistle from Scicluna Field is slated for 3:00 p.m.
TOLEDO 1, Ball State 0
UT: M. Cornwell (J. Morsillo), 23:45
SHOTS: UT 6, BSU 20
CORNER KICKS: UT 7, BSU 7
SAVES: UT 5, BSU 3
FOULS: UT 11, BSU 14
