OXFORD, Ohio – Week two of Mid-American Conference play takes the Miami soccer team back on the road for a pair of contests against in-state competition.
The RedHawks (2-6-1, 0-2 MAC) head to Ohio on Friday (4 p.m.) and finish the weekend at Kent State on Sunday (1 p.m.).
Miami dropped its first two league contests against last year's MAC Tournament finalists, falling 2-0 to Bowling Green and 2-1 to Toledo.
Lyda Bogdanovitch netted her team-leading third goal of the season in Sunday's setback to the Rockets, where they fell despite a 16-10 shot advantage.
Patricia Koutoulas has logged every second in goal and holds a 1.72 goals against average and a .746 save percentage.
Ohio split its first weekend of MAC matches and is 3-5-1 overall on the season. OU's 10 goals rank 10th in the MAC while their 1.48 goals against average ranks seventh. Abby Townsend has scored three of the Bobcats' 10 goals while Madelyn Kah, Alivia Milesky and Sarina Dirrig have two apiece. The bulk of Ohio's minutes in goal have been played by Sydney Malham, who has a 1.08 goals against average with a .774 save percentage.
Kent State dropped both of its MAC matches to Eastern Michigan (2-0) and Central Michigan (2-1) to fall to 4-5-1 overall. KSU sits eighth in the MAC in scoring (1.40 goals per game) and 10th in goals against average (1.74). The Golden Flashes' attack is led by Vital Kats' 11 points (3 goals, 5 assists). Faith O'Neill has started seven of 10 contests in net and has a 1.80 goals against average and a .658 save percentage.
Live stats will be available for both matches via the host school's respective athletic websites. Sunday's tilt at Kent State features a live video stream.
Free Kicks
All-Time Series: Miami is 14-9-2 all-time against Ohio and 12-8-3 mark against Kent State. The RedHawks played the Bobcats to a 0-0 tie last year while falling 1-0 to Kent State.
The Kids Can Play: Miami has spread out its scoring to this point while breaking in a freshman heavy lineup. Five different players have scored Miami's five goals this season, three of which have been freshmen. Seventeen of Miami's 26 points (6 goals, 5 assists) have been contributed by its freshman class.
Slow Starts: The RedHawks hope to get out of the gates a little faster as it has allowed the first goal in all five of seven contests. Miami has fought back to answer an opening score in three of those outings, including a 2-1 comeback win over Evansville on Sept. 2, but has been outscored 11-2 overall in the first half in the early going this season. The RedHawks have outscored opponents 6-4 in the second half.
Search for Scoring: Offense has been hard to come by for the Red & White the last few seasons and last year saw them score just nine goals in their 18 contests, six fewer than their previous low mark for a season. A good amount of the freshmen were brought in to address the team's attack as it looks to reverse a trend.
Miami scoring by season (per match; record)
2012: 60 (2.50; 20-3-1)
2013: 36 (1.71; 11-6-4)
2014: 31 (1.63; 14-3-2)
2015: 21 (1.00; 11-8-2)
2016: 15 (0.79; 8-9-2)
2017: 9 (0.50; 2-15-1)
2018: 8 (0.89; 2-6-1)
