April 16th marked what was a somewhat comfortable lead for the Broncos in the MAC West division as they held a three game lead over second place Northern Illinois University. WMU was looking at one of the top seeds in the MAC tournament hopeful of an easier road to the championship game.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, the team went on a terrible eight game slide with seven of the games being conference opponents. This losing skid almost knocked the Western out of the MAC tournament altogether. The Broncos came into the final weekend of the season against instate rival Eastern Michigan University in desperate need of some victories.