The season is still young, but the Boston University women’s soccer team is already showing that it is ready to pick up where it left off at the end of last year’s successful campaign.
The Terriers went a little over a mile down the road to Parsons Field on Sunday night to win their second game of the season, this time taking down Northeastern University 3-0.
BU (2-0) did not get on the score sheet until the second half, as the team played a very conservative style in the first frame to hold off an aggressive Northeastern (0-1) attack. However, a halftime adjustment was key to the Terriers jumping out front and staying there later in the game.
“Mostly we just had to figure them out,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman in a phone interview after the win. “In the second half, the adjustment we made was that we tried to keep our lines closer together and then gave them less room to play in. That, I thought was a big difference, because therefore our players got more confident to be aggressive.”
The first player to capitalize on the more aggressive play in the second half was freshman forward Jenna Fisher, who knocked in a corner kick from sophomore forward Ana Cuffia. The goal, which ended up as the game-winning goal, was the first of Fisher’s career.
Fisher’s success came as no surprise to Feldman though, who spoke highly of the first-year player from Longmeadow.
“Jenna Fisher came in the preseason ready to play,” Feldman said. “She was fit, she was confident. She has been one of the most consistent players since the first day . . . The kid is just competing and she is technical and she is quick and she isn’t acting overwhelmed. That is pretty unusual for a first-year.”
After Fisher got on the board, the goals kept coming for the Terriers. Just six minutes after Fisher’s goal, junior forward Madison Clemens scored her first goal of the season off a cross from sophomore forward Taylor Krebs.
The Terriers added an extra insurance goal in the 75th minute, when sophomore midfielder Jamie Turchi put home her second goal of the season off a feed from senior midfielder Brea Hewitt.
Through BU’s first two games, the Terriers have outscored opponents 6-0. A big part of the zero goals allowed has been junior goalkeeper Andrea Green, who made four saves in Sunday’s shutout.
Green, who had not started a single game at the collegiate level before this season, already has two shutouts in her first two games. She has made seven saves so far this season.
“Andrea Green has just been controlling things,” Feldman said. “The chances she has had to save and just controlling the box and being really sure on service and delivery. She has been as steady as I could have ever imagined. She has been a really bright light.”
As for the 2-0 start for the team, Feldman said she is pleased with the way her team is playing, but that she knows it will only improve as the season continues.
“It’s as good as I could hope for in the first two games,” Feldman said. “I’m very pleased with our start. We are not playing perfectly but we are doing some things that we worked on and things we focused on and really being attentive to those things, and we are going to keep identifying other areas we improved on.”
BU’s next opponent will be a tough one, as it will travel to Ohio to face the University of Dayton. Dayton was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic 10 in the A-10 coaches’ poll.
“This is another team who is like us who has carved out a niche,” Feldman said. “It will be a very competitive game. And it is going to be on national TV which is going to be some added excitement . . . It is going to be exciting, it is going to be a challenge and I’m sure it is going to be a lot of fun.”
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