Sometimes halfway is an improvement.

The Saint Louis University field hockey team battled through two games at home this weekend and came up empty-handed in both games.

Despite the losses, the Billikens realized they are halfway to being a solid team, showing big improvements defensively, but room for offensive growth.

“We’re still progressing as a team,” said coach Shannon West. “We’re continuing to generate offensively, but we’re struggling to finish in the circle and in the cage.”

The Billikens dipped to 1-4 Sunday at the Anheuser Busch Center after closing out a homestretch with a 4-1 loss to Central Michigan.

In the first half, the Billikens and the Chippewas battled to gain control of the game. Each team traded vollies before Central Michigan scored the first goal of the game after wearing down the Billikens’ defense.

“We had a great game defensively,” said junior Lindsay Lombardo. “Our defense got tired but did a great job. (Central Michigan) had the ball on the 25-yard line a lot and our defense worked especially hard. They would get the ball cleared out, but we couldn’t get transitions going, or if we did, we couldn’t score.”

The goal came with 19:20 remaining in the first half when Central Michigan’s Michelle Fogle put the Chippewas on top after a series of shots and rebounds in front of the SLU goal.

Carin Boone scored the lone goal for the Billikens when she received a pass from Ellen Rapp with 4:35 remaining in the half.

Central Michigan blazed ahead of the Billikens in the second half, netting three goals and supressing any hopes of a Billiken rally.

SLU’s Leslie Kearns notched four saves, which was matched by the back line’s four defensive saves.

“Our defense was awesome. We have a lot of experience in defense,” West said. “All three of our captains are in our back line.”

“We played more as a team on Sunday than we did on Friday,” Lombardo said.

“We were able to use effective plays like switching the ball, we also passed better and we kept possession more.”

The Billikens were haunted by a 3-0 loss to Southwest Missouri State on Friday the 13th at the A-B Center.

SMS dominated the match early on. The Bears put away the first goal of the match with 29:02 remaining in the first half as the Bears’ Leah Postorino earned an unassisted goal.

During the first half, the Bills mustered three unsuccessful shots on goal. The Bears fired six shots against Kearns.

Two minutes into the second half, Postorino scored her second goal of the outing to edge the Bears 2-0 over the Bills. The Bears continued to dominate the field possession throughout the half, and put away the match with a final goal from Liz Miyashita ten minutes after Postorino’s goal.

The Bills were unable to gain possession of the ball for the remaining 22 minutes of the game and ended the game scoreless.

This weekend, the Billikens will travel to Indiana to face Northwestern University and Ball State in tournament play. The Bills expect to show more offensive prowess in the tournament and will be able to use the experience gained last weekend to their advantage.

“I’m excited for us to play Northwestern,” West said. “They are a strong team, it will be a competitive game and will be up in the air. Neither team has a definite advantage over the other, but if we play great and really come out and play, we will be able to generate goals.”