Soccer Falls to Ball State on Late-Match Heartbreaker

- Central Michigan Soccer closed the 2026 home schedule with a 1-0 loss to Ball State in Mid-American Conference play Thursday night. "We knew it wasn't going to be high-scoring," Head Coach James DeCosemo said.

"To win was probably going to be a [single] goal, and it was going to come from a half-chance, a limited chance, and we created those. You almost have to be perfect, and we just weren't quite there.

The junior forwards, Ella Betzold (Essexville, Mich. / Garber) and Ella Dykstra (Saint Joseph, Mich.

/ Saint Joseph), brought intense pressure throughout the contest. While Betzold took the shots-four with three on-frame-Dykstra was routinely involved in setting the table and creating the space.

Senior keeper Jadia Kershaw (Lewis Center, Ohio / Olentangy Orange) continued her momentum from an eight-save shutout at Massachusetts on Saturday for six more stops, only to have the chance at back-to-back broken up nearly 85 minutes in. We just need that one moment … we had a good performance between the boxes but didn't have the quality in either box to win the game.

[Ball State] created two or three moments, and scored; we created two or three moments, and didn't." The moment nearly came just 90 seconds earlier as Naomi Phillips (Markham, Ontario / Bill Crothers) squared a header from a corner served low in front of the goal by Melaina Troy (Rochester Hills, Mich. The initial save led to a rebound attempt from Niko Astaiza (London, Ontario / Mother Teresa) that just missed the left post.

"The only thing that's been missing for us to have a much better season would have been a little bit of luck-which sometimes it takes-and definitely a little bit of quality, and that was the big difference."

The 2026 Chippewa Soccer campaign closes at Kent State Sunday (Nov.