MUNCIE — Ball State women’s soccer coach Craig Roberts attended a game between the Haiti and Australian national teams last year, and he took that opportunity to chat up Haiti coach Shek Borkowski about the prospect of playing his Cardinals in the spring.

Borkowski promised to see if a date opened in his schedule. He found one for the first weekend of April. Ball State will host the Haiti national team at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Briner Sports Complex. Admission is free.

Roberts pointed out some of the Haitian players are in their upper 20s in age and have the experience of playing against the best in the world, including Americans Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Hope Solo.

“As a coach what we want to do is basically give our student-athletes a unique experience,” Roberts said. “These are the kind of challenges they have where we’re in a win-win situation. We’re definitely going to be the underdogs in this game, but it’s an opportunity for these girls to play against quality players who have played at the highest level.”

Ball State posted an 8-6-4 last season, its first winning mark since 2007. The Cardinals lost 10 seniors from that team, though, so these spring games serve as an opportunity for Roberts to evaluate his returning players before the incoming 2013 class arrives oncampus.

The Cardinals are 2-0-2 in spring games to this point. Ball State also will play a Canadian youth team (April 13) and Saint Joseph’s (April 20).

“We have a new team that has to be formed,” Roberts said, “and the girls have really taken the responsibility of developing themselves and they’ve been coming along.”