Matching hot starts important for Central
It’s a position many of CMU’s fall sports teams remember all too well.
Just one year ago, several of the fall teams were in the same position they are now.
Nearly all were riding good starts and peering ahead to what were optimistic dreams of winning a Mid-American Conference Championship.
But nearly all of them stumbled.
CMU hoisted just one trophy at the end of the 2005 fall season — a field hockey MAC tournament title.
The position of last year’s teams compared to this year’s offer a striking resemblance with only one variation.
The 2006 scenario is even better.
Central’s four main fall sports — football, field hockey, soccer and volleyball — have a combined winning percentage of .653 at 32-17-1 overall. The teams are 10-8-1 in the MAC.
The football team is off to its best start in the MAC since 1990 at 3-0. The great beginning looks just as good as last year’s 2-1 start. However, it will mean little if the team stumbles like it did at the end of 2005.
The soccer team raced to its best start in school history this year with an unblemished
7-0-0 record. At 10-2-1 overall, the team appears to be headed on a direct route to a MAC title.
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in subpar fashion last fall.
The men’s team started well just like this year, but quickly had its streak of three consecutive MAC Championships end when it floundered to a fifth place finish at the conference meet.
Sophomore Jackie Rivard’s promising freshman season ended in ghastly fashion when the women’s team finished a disappointing seventh.
The field hockey team is the lone CMU team off to a worse start than last year, but not by much.
At 6-7 overall, it is just one win shy of last year’s 7-5 start.
But it was not how the team started last season, but how it finished that mattered most.
Coach Cristy Freese’s team found momentum heading into the MAC Tournament where it won three consecutive games and outscored its opponents 9-1 to capture the championship.
It will take a lot to repeat, but the team’s momentum seems to be building after winning its first MAC game last weekend.
But the volleyball team has been the best story this fall.
The team struggled to a 3-23 record last season. But this year has been a different story.
The 13 wins are more than the team won in 2004 and 2005 combined.
And its three conference wins equal the conference games won in each of the last two years combined as well.
But for all of the wins CMU has collected this fall, it cannot afford to suffer a letdown as each team crosses its season’s midway point.
If it so much as equals what it has in the first half of the season, Central’s fall teams will have far more than one MAC trophy to polish at season’s end.
Robert McLean can be reached at rmclean@cm-life.com.
