Consistent Luscinski leads way

Jessica Luscinski does not miss games.

Luscinski, a senior midfielder on the Boston University women’s soccer team and the reigning America East Conference Striker of the Year, failed to play in only one game between her freshman, sophomore and junior years.

The lone holdout? That would be a 2008 contest against Stony Brook University. After that absence her freshman year, Luscinski played in 47 straight games heading into this year, her senior season.

In fact, she only failed to start in one game during her sophomore and junior years, the Terriers’ 2009 regular season finale against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Though she didn’t start, Luscinski still came off the bench in that contest.

This season, Luscinski started the Terriers’ (12-2-1, 5-0 America East) first four games, and made quick work reminding nonconference opponents of the accolades and titles she has stacked up in the past few years.

“Jess Luscinski and [freshman forward] Taylor Krebs came right out of the gate scoring a lot of goals,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman this past Sunday.

Luscinski scored three goals in the opening quartet, putting her well on pace to pass her 12 goals from last season. She averaged 71 minutes per game.

So it was obvious something wasn’t right when Luscinski only played 18 minutes in BU’s game against the University of Washington in the Husky/Nike Invitational on Sept. 2. The Terriers won the game, but Luscinski spent most of it on the bench.

When Luscinski neither started nor played in the next game, a 2-0 BU victory over host University of Portland to give the Terriers the tournament title, it became even more evident that there were problems with the Terriers’ lead striker.

It turns out the Bedford, N.H. native was sidelined with a pulled muscle. She ended up missing a total of three games before playing limited minutes as part of a 2-0 BU home win over Harvard University on September 14th. Four days later, Luscinski was back to a more normal level of service, playing 77 minutes in 3-1 victory over Yale University.

Now, a little over a month after she was injured, Luscinski is back on track.

She leads the America East in shots during conference play so far this season, taking 24 through five games. She has the most points in America East play, ten, thanks to three goals and four assists. Those three goals put her in a five-way tie for third in the standings, behind only Rachel McKee of UMBC and teammate Tiya Gallegos, both of whom have four goals.

On Sunday, as a part of BU’s 4-1 win over the Binghamton University Bearcats, Luscinski scored her sixth goal of the season. The goal puts the midfielder halfway to her total from last season and it ties her with sophomore midfielder Kylie Strom for the most BU goals so far this season

Strom also contributed a goal on Sunday, and Luscinski gave total credit for her goal to Strom.

“Kylie Strom did all the work,” Luscinski said. “Ana [Cuffia] took the ball off the line beautifully, ended up linking it to Kylie who took her space and I was able to peel out and she put a ball beautifully through and all I really had to do was just hit it in.”

It’s not a one-way street at the front of the BU offense, however; as Luscinski had previously aided Strom’s goal against the Bearcats. Strom found the back of the net off a rebound from her teammate.

Luscinski says it as an example of the style of play the Terriers aim to deliver.

“I think that’s a perfect example of how we want to crash the net and follow shots,” Luscinski said. “Kylie once again did a great job of getting that ball across to me. Feeding her defender, getting the ball across to me and her being able to follow that into the net, that’s just good soccer.”

Overall, Luscinski feels she is back on track for a successful senior season and hopes to help the Terriers find more wins heading into the postseason.

“I feel like physically I’m fully back,” Luscinski said. “The heat was hard for everyone today, but I’m feeling good, I’m feeling back. Anything I can do to help the team.”