Boston University women’s soccer coach Nancy Feldman and her team were focused on only one thing after their 7-0 drubbing of Bryant University on Wednesday night. A win against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County Sunday afternoon at Nickerson Field would give the Terrier’s their third-straight American East regular-season championship, and home field advantage in the conference tournament.
There is only one problem. This was all dependent on Stony Brook University, who was only one game behind BU in the standings, winning Thursday night against the University of Maine. Simply put, Stony Brook choked, and lost a 4-0 decision potentially dropping them to fourth in the standings.
As a result of Stony Brook’s loss, the Terriers (11-5-2, 6-1-0 AE) claim their third-straight America East regular-season title with still one game remaining in the season. BU is the first team to claim the regular-season for three-consecutive years since the University of Hartford completed the feat in the 1997, ’98 and ’99 seasons.
While the outcome of Sunday’s game against UMBC (2-13-1, 1-6-0 AE) now has a lot less riding on it, the Terriers are continuing to stay focused on concluding the America East regular-season on a high note and not looking beyond to the tournament.
‘I think we have to maintain our focus by playing one game at a time and not looking past UMBC,’ Feldman said. ‘The importance is to be mindful of what we need to do to win the game and to remove the distractions.’
Sunday afternoon, BU will honor its eight seniors, who will be playing their last regular-season home game as Terriers. Captains Casey Brown, Mara Osher and Emily Pallotta all have played pivotal roles in the Terrier’s success this season.
Pallotta currently leads the Terriers with six goals, and is tied for second with fellow senior Farrell McClernon with 14 points. McClernon is nipping at Pallotta’s heels with five goals of her own, and has contributed four game winning goals this season. Classmate Taleen Dimirdjian also had a breakout year, scoring her first two goals as a Terrier against Binghamton.
Sunday’s game also will be the last regular-season contest for Janie Reilly who has provided exceptional goalkeeping all season long, and especially in conference play. Her 0.55 goals-against average is best in the conference and second best in the history of BU women’s soccer.
Feldman knows that Sunday’s game will be emotional for all the seniors.
‘I think we have to remain focused on taking care of business during the game without being caught up in the emotion of it being our senior day,’ Feldman said. ‘The distractions are going to be the emotions of being their final regular-season home game for eight of our players. A lot of it is a mental approach and then it is a level of continuing to have patience with an aggressiveness in attack, which is something we are continuing to build on and work on.’
Even with their impressive 7-0 win against Bryant, Feldman still knows that her team has yet to reach its full potential.
‘I don’t think we’re yet at our peak,’ Feldman said. ‘I think we’re getting close. We’re certainly better now than we were four weeks ago. But I think we have some developing to do. For the value of possession I would like to see us be a bit stronger, valuing possession and be able to keep it in play a little more purposeful and I think that’s just a level of patience that we have to have on attack.’
The injury that sophomore Brittany Heist suffered against Bryant does not seem to be anything serious.
The Retrievers have struggled from the opening game this season. They give up a mind blowing 2.82 goals per game and are second to last in the conference, scoring only .8 goals per game, not the exact formula for success.
BU, however, is not taking the Retrievers lightly, which has proven to be a successful strategy throughout the course of the 2009 season.
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