Women’s soccer decimates Lehigh, builds on nations’ best win streak

The Boston University women’s soccer team continued its dominant Patriot League play at Nickerson Field on Saturday, as it took an early lead and never looked back against Lehigh University en route to a 3-0 win. The win marks the 33rd straight conference game at Nickerson Field without a BU loss, the best active home conference win streak in the nation.

The win helps to further cement the Terriers (7-5-3, 5-0-1 Patriot League) as the team to beat in the Patriot League, as they now have 16 points to lead the conference. The next best team is Bucknell University with 11 points.

The Terriers, fresh off a 4-0 victory at Lafayette College, extended their offensive success against the Mountain Hawks (6-6-3, 1-3-2 Patriot League), totaling 20 shots in the match. Those shots resulted in goals from senior forward Jenna Fisher, sophomore midfielder Jesse Shreck and junior forward Erica Kosienski. Fisher also notched two assists on her way to totaling four points on Senior Day.

“I think we came out really strong,” Fisher said, “Lehigh was definitely a really feisty team to deal with, in the first half especially. But I think once we were able to settle the ball down we really played our game, and got a few goals in there and we really started to dominate after that.”

BU coach Nancy Feldman echoed Fisher, citing her squad’s offensive efficiency.

“You certainly see the confidence they’re playing with,” Feldman said. “[In] trying to implement our style and dictate the game, I thought we did really well in the first half with our attack, but defensively, I don’t think we dug in quite as much as I thought we could. That was what we improved in the second half, and then maybe we lost a little bit of the flow of having the ball, but after 15 to 20 minutes we reset it and got it back a little bit.

“You’re not going to be perfect from start to finish in a game and dominate every single second, there is another team out there that came to play,” Feldman added. “I thought we put our stamp on the game, and it was pretty consistent for the 90 minutes. Seniors had a great day individually and collectively, we’re playing with a lot of confidence and their focus has been fantastic. They know what they want and now they’re believing and trusting how we’re going to get it.”

After a pregame ceremony for the seven BU seniors, the game got underway. The Terriers pulled ahead early when Fisher knocked in a rebound shot from sophomore forward Christina Wakefield in the 10th minute. It was Fisher’s fourth goal of the season.

Twenty-two minutes later, the Terriers struck again, thanks to Fisher. The Longmeadow native had a great run up the right side of the field before sending a low cross in front of the net to Shreck, who got a foot on the ball in front of Lehigh goalkeeper Ani Nahapetian and scored her second goal of the season.

“What you saw today is what she does day in and day out every single practice and every single game,” Feldman said about Fisher. “She hasn’t always been the one getting the goal. In the second half [of the Lafayette game] she helped reset the team by communicating ‘Hey, we need to get a hold of it’ and then doing it by action.”

In the second half, after the Eagles started to put some pressure on BU’s back line for several minutes, the Terriers finally cleared the ball and added another goal. It was Fisher again who sent in a cross, this time from the left side of the box, which was headed by Kosienski into the net to secure the win in the 78th minute.

“She’s definitely an action person and she’s not a loudmouth,” Feldman said of Fisher. “She’s showing you how to train, how to play, how to compete, how to be undersized and win battles. She’s an unbelievable competitor, and has an unbelievably strong will, and it’s pretty darn contagious.”