After earning national recognition for its play in the Husky/Nike Invitational, the Boston University women’s soccer team will look to extend its unbeaten streak with games against New England rivals the University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts this weekend.
The Terriers (5-0-1) were ranked No. 20 in the Soccer America poll and No. 23 in the most recent National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Continental Tire national rankings after shutting out the University of Washington and No. 8 University of Portland last weekend.
“To be recognized by polls puts us in a level of prestige and certainly the kids deserve it,” said BU head coach Nancy Feldman. “They deserve the recognition and it’s good for our program, it’s good for recruiting, it’s good for our conference, it’s good for our region.
“I think we’ve struggled to earn that kind of respect for whatever reason… Over the past few years we’ve really played some quality soccer and have had some good results.”
BU will begin its weekend under the lights on Friday against the Huskies (2-2). UConn enters the match-up after having beaten Wake Forest University and then being shutout by Virginia Tech University during the Wake Forest Nike Challenge.
“I know they’re a good attacking team,” Feldman said. “Their front five players are very, very good and they’re goalkeeper is very, very solid.”
Senior Jessica Dulski has been in goal every game so far for UConn and was named the Big East Goalkeeper of the Week for her efforts in the Wake Forest Nike Challenge. During her four games in goal this season, Dulski has had 22 saves while earning a 2-2 record.
The Terriers last played UConn on Sept. 19 of last year when BU scored three goals against Dulski at the end of the game to shut out the Huskies 3-0.
“They’re always a competitive NCAA level team,” Feldman said. “That [game’s] important because they’ll be rated highly because of their conference strength.”
On Sunday, the Terriers will face off against UMass (2-1-1) for the first time in more than two years.
Since the last meeting between the two teams, the Minutewomen have gone through some significant changes, including the arrival of a new coach, Ed Matz, last season. Matz was previously the head coach of Northeastern University.
“There’s a lot of change [at UMass],” Feldman said. “They got a few transfers and it’s a completely different lineup than two years ago. [Matz] is someone that we’re familiar with because he was at Northeastern. He does a really wonderful job putting a team together and making them competitive too.”
When they last met, the Terriers defeated UMass 2-0 and didn’t give up any shots on goal to the Minutewomen.
“I’m expecting it not to look anything like the last game as far as what their team is going to look like,” Feldman said.
The Minutewomen enter the game on the heels of a challenging loss to Bryant University where despite outshooting Bryant 22-16, UMass suffered a 4-1 loss.
“UMass is a quality opponent in the region,” Feldman said. “They’ve had some mixed results in the beginning of this year.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge the Terriers will face during these two games will be a change in field conditions, since BU’s Nickerson Field is made of turf, while both UConn and UMass’ fields are grass.
“We’ll be playing away both games with both games on grass which is a little different surface for us,” Feldman said. “Washington had lighter grass; UConn and [UMass] have a little heavier grass so we have to keep our speed of play and speed of attack.
“On grass it tends to naturally slow you down so we have to find ways to keep our speed going with good first touches and moving it at our feet.”
Field conditions and smaller factors aside, for Feldman, there is one constant goal this season no matter which team the Terriers are facing.
“We want to keep improving our play,” Feldman said. “Keep building on what we have done so far and being better, keeping the ball under pressure and do a better job of setting our rhythm and tempo during the game.”
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