This preseason, TopDrawerSoccer.com ranked junior forward Jessica Luscinski of the Boston University women's soccer team as the top player to watch in the America East Conference this season for good reason.
Luscinski garnered All-AE First-Team honors in 2009 after a standout sophomore campaign in which she notched six goals and dished out a team-high eight assists in 22 games.
But a slow start to the 2010 season hindered Luscinski in the early going, as she only tallied one goal &- back on Aug. 29 against the University of Washington at the Terrier Tailgate &- through the first six contests.
Since then, Luscinski has been a completely different player in the month of September. From her performances in recent weeks, it seems she's found the scoring touch that had been missing for most of August.
"She's been outstanding, and she's a threat," said BU coach Nancy Feldman. "She's just a terrific soccer player and a terrific attacking player. She's supremely confident. I can really coach Jess hard because she believes so strongly in herself that I'm not going to break her down.
"She can be coached hard and that's why she's grown so much as a player. She has a supreme confidence in herself, which is terrific. You don't see that in a lot of female players at their age."
Entering Sunday's match against the University of Connecticut at Nickerson Field, the 5-foot-4 Luscinski had netted two goals in the past three games, including the insurance goal in BU's 3-1 upset win over then-No. 22 College of William &' Mary on Sept. 10 and the eventual game-winner in BU's 3-0 victory over Harvard University on Thursday.
Nearly 10 minutes into the second half of the UConn contest, graduate student forward Lisa Kevorkian crossed the ball across the six-yard box from her position at the right edge of the penalty box. After a brief tussle for possession in front of Husky goalkeeper Jessica Dulski, Luscinski broke through and poked the ball into the goal, giving the Terriers a 1-0 advantage in the 55th minute.
After the game, Luscinski talked about why her name has been seen quite often on the score sheet as of late &- mainly in the goals-scored department. According to her, she hasn't been doing anything special to find the back of the net.
"It's a mindset just to get to goal, help my team out and from practicing hard, it's been paying off in games," Luscinski said.
But her contributions on the day weren't done. Off a corner kick, Luscinski assisted on junior tri-captain Lina Cords' header in the 74th minute, adding the exclamation point to BU's fifth win of the season and giving the Terriers some much needed revenge after the Huskies knocked them out of the NCAA tournament in the first round last year.
"This game was huge for us," Luscinski said. "We didn't forget that loss. We still all could tell you what it felt like last year leaving that field. Coming in and beating them on our home field after we've been gone for a lot of road games was awesome. It was just a great team win."
With four goals, two assists and 10 points on the season, Luscinski trails Kevorkian in two of those categories for tops on the team. Kevorkian has six goals, two assists and 14 points, making the combination of Kevorkian and Luscinski one of AE's most dynamic and potent duos on the offensive side of the field.
"Lisa's been a fantastic addition to the team this year," Luscinski said. "Her work rate's amazing, and she helps us create stuff."
The third-year player noted, however, that Kevorkian shouldn't feel all too threatened at the top of the Terriers' offensive leader board.
"I just think anything we can do to help the team win is what really matters," Luscinski said.
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.
