STORRS, Conn. – Amidst the despair that comes with losing a playoff game and the sorrow that accompanies the end of a season – and the end of careers – one thing remained consistent for the Boston University women’s soccer team: the play of the senior class of 2005.
As the Terrier team bulldozed through its conference schedule during the regular season en route to the America East playoffs and on to the NCAA Tournament, the team seemed to improve each game, relying on a core group of seniors.
It’s no surprise, then, that as the stakes grew higher and the seniors got better, the team did too.
In the Terriers’ two tournament games – a first-round win over the University of Connecticut and a second-round loss to Boston College – the trend continued.
In Thursday’s 1-0 win over UConn, all the seniors played a part in a game that would decide if their collegiate careers ended then or later. But, it was the contribution of a relatively unsung upperclassman that won the game for the Terriers.
Ashley Chassar, the senior midfielder who injured her knee early in the season and was out of lineup for the better part of the year, continued her resurgence with the game-winning goal in double overtime.
“She wasn’t playing much, but not a peep came out of her,” head coach Nancy Feldman said of Chassar. “Then once she came back, we couldn’t get her off the field.”
Chassar wasn’t the only one who helped BU beat the No. 15 team in the nation. Far from it. Senior central defenders Susan Marschall and Brittany McDonald prevented the Huskies’ high-octane offense from scoring a goal.
“The seniors are really carrying us right now,” Feldman said after that game. “It’s been a different senior every day, too.”
Starting on Senior Appreciation Day against the University of Hartford on Oct. 23, a different senior has stepped up and scored the big goal on offense or reached back and made the big stop on defense.
In that game against Hartford – the final regular-season home game – Meghann Cook and Melissa Shulman netted a goal apiece to earn the 3-1 win and pick up some momentum heading into the conference tournament.
In the America East semifinal against the University of New Hampshire, it was Shulman again who provided the offense, this time scoring both Terrier goals herself in a 2-1 overtime victory.
Marschall, so effective holding the defensive line against UNH, chipped in offensively in the championship against the University of Maine. The senior back headed home the game-winning goal to cap BU’s undefeated conference season with the league title.
It all came full circle this weekend, culminating with Chassar’s unforgettable head ball that propelled the Terriers into the second round of the tournament. And although BU lost 1-0 on a late goal to BC to end its season, Feldman said the contributions made by this year’s senior class will continue on.
“Now the expectation is that we’re going to make it to the third round,” Feldman said. “You know, because they’ve laid some groundwork, they’ve given us some belief.”
She compared her 2005 squad to the her team in 2000, the only one in program history to advance to the second round of the tournament until this year’s squad.
“In the beginning of the season, they felt we were good enough [to get to the second round of the Tournament],” Feldman said. “And they put their money where their mouth is.
“They’re great leaders, great players,” she added. “They balanced fun and focus really well. I’m going to miss them.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
