The Boston University women’s soccer team won its second game in a row Saturday night at Nickerson Field, defeating Fairfield University 3-1, as head coach Nancy Feldman earned her 100th career win as a Terrier.
Three different scorers gave BU (3-3-1) a 3-0 lead in the second half, and despite a late Fairfield (2-4-1) tally, the Terriers cruised to victory.
Feldman said she was pleased with the way her team played.
‘I think for about 55 minutes we played the kind of soccer I can see us playing over 90,’ Feldman said. ‘I would like to get to the point where we feel confident enough about the way we play that we can work for 90 minutes and move for 90 minutes like we started the game and played for most of the first half.’
Sophomore back Susan Marschall opened the scoring with the only goal of the first frame, when she gobbled up a loose ball and fired it past Fairfield sophomore keeper Katie Ely. Sophomore forward Melissa Shulman, who had her shot blocked on the play, was credited with the assist.
‘You really saw what Susan Marschall can give us both in the back and in the middle,’ Feldman said of the goal.
Fairfield then had a point blank opportunity to tie the score with less than four minutes to play in the first half when sophomore forward Shannon Helm broke in alone on BU senior keeper Jessica Clinton. But Clinton made a diving save, deflecting the ball to preserve the advantage.
Shulman gave the Terriers some breathing room in the 78th minute when she scored her team-leading third goal of the season by tipping a loose ball over Ely and into the back of an open net. She then lifted her shirt over her head in celebration of sealing Feldman’s 100th victory.
‘Melissa Shulman still isn’t at 100 percent as far as her mobility, but she was very effective,’ Feldman said. ‘It’s just amazing she’s so technical and so smart.’
Senior forward Katie Chen closed the BU scoring attack with her first goal of the season when she took the ball in the center of the Fairfield attack zone, dribbled to her left, then turned and fired a shot across her body from beyond the 18-yard box into the upper right corner of the net.
Junior forward Meghan King added a goal for Fairfield at in the 85th minute, preventing Clinton from earning a shutout, but the outcome had already been decided.
BU dominated play, outshooting the Stags, 34-6, garnering more corner kicks, 4-3 and forcing Ely to make 11 saves to Clinton’s three.
‘It’s not always going to be pretty and its not always going to be your best day of soccer, but the grittiness and the strong will are what I think are going to carry us,’ Feldman said after the game. ‘I’m very happy with where we are at and I think we might even get a streak going here.’
The schedule seems to be rather generous to BU over the next week, as the Terriers play a University of Rhode Island team that has lost four games in a row by a combined score of 12-5. Later in the week, they take on America East newcomer the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (0-4, 0-2 America East).
The eight goals BU has scored in its last two games five against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Wednesday and three Saturday night account for half as many goals as the Terriers scored all of last season, a statistic of which Feldman said her players are well aware.
While her BU career mark stands at 100-56-9 (192-77-16 overall), Feldman seemed unfazed by the attention even after players doused her in water once the final whistle blew. On a night when the only head coach in BU varsity women’s soccer history reached a milestone, a humbled Feldman still shifted the spotlight back to the players that have so far brought her three of those victories this season.
‘I’m glad to celebrate it on a night when we get back to .500 because we started the season in a little bit of a hole,’ she said.
She went on to reflect on her nearly nine years of turning the BU women’s soccer program into a local power.
‘I feel like each team that comes after the one before it has a responsibility to contribute to the tradition that was started back in 1995 and has been built on after that,’ Feldman said. ‘I felt like last year was a bump in the road but I didn’t want the kids to forget how successful this program had been. And it’s not just ‘well, step on the field, we’re BU, we’re going to win the conference championship.’ They’re going to have to work for it.
‘I think it’s very significant that the hundredth win comes in a year when that’s what we are trying to establish,’ Feldman added. ‘Year in and year out, kids have to come into this program and feel like it’s an honor to put on this jersey.’
BU players next don the scarlet and white on Wednesday against Rhode Island. The next home game comes Saturday night in the first ever meeting of any BU athletic team and UMBC.