Terriers look to regain offensive form in matchup with UMass

After a tough stretch for the Boston University women’s soccer team out west at the Stanford Nike Invitational, where it lost to No. 3 Stanford University and Santa Clara University, the Terriers return home Friday night to Nickerson Field to take on the University of Massachusetts.

With the two losses behind them, the Terriers hope to turn things around this Friday against UMass. After winning two out of its first three games, the Minutewomen have lost three in a row, including losses to No. 17 Wake Forest University and No. 11 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Now, UMass is looking to bounce back and knock off an in-state rival in BU.

If there is one player to look out for on the Minutewomen, it is midfielder Moa Mattsson. Mattsson, a native of Uppsala, Sweden, has scored three goals in two games to start the season, including a two-goal effort in UMass’s 3–2 win over Bryant University.

Mattsson leads the team with her three goals and 13 shots in six games.

The UMass goalkeeper, Stephanie Gordon, has allowed nine goals in six starts this season for a goals-against average of 1.50. She has one shutout on the season, which came against the University at Albany on Aug. 26.

For the Terriers, it has been a tough stretch over the last week, as they failed to produce enough offense to match the great performance of junior goalkeeper Andrea Green.

“There was a little bit of disappointment we didn’t win one of those games,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “We felt very satisfied after the Stanford game. But we also felt like we let a couple of games slip away.”

The Terriers’ first game in the Stanford Invitational was against the defending national champs, Stanford, where Green and company kept the game scoreless for the first 88 minutes.

With several game-saving stops by Green, including a diving save in the 85th minute to keep the game scoreless, the Terriers were in reach of at least a tie.

That all changed when defender Alina Garciamendez of Stanford hit a bullet inside the right post, passing Green and giving the Cardinal a 1–0 win.

The second game of the Invitational did not make things any easier for the Terriers, who went up against another highly ranked opponent in Santa Clara. Santa Clara had come into the game at 1–2–2 and was looking to bounce back from its loss against Georgetown University in their first game of the Invitational.

Things looked good for the Terriers early, when junior Kylie Strom had a corner kick for BU one minute into the game. However, BU once again was outshot 17–9 and let bad defensive mistakes continue to plague them, when Bronco defender Sofia Huerta scored on a misplayed ball by the BU defense.

Even with seven of their nine shot attempts coming in the second half, two of those being scoring chances, the Terriers could not put the ball in the back of the net, and went on to lose the game 1–0.

The lack of offense was a primary issue last weekend at the Stanford Invitational and is something Feldman said “isn’t there when you’re playing better teams.”

“The reason we play the Stanford’s and the Santa Clara’s and the teams in the top 25 are because we want to keep getting better at attacking and defending the best,” Feldman said. “How do we improve? We attack, and we keep working on timing a little bit and how do we kill the attack. It’s not a one-day thing, it’s not a two-day thing. It’s a series of practices and a series of weeks to get that done.”

Even though the Terriers did not come home with a win, there were some spotlights that cannot be ignored entering the game against UMass. Green’s play has been phenomenal so far this season as she has averaged only a 1.07 goals-against average.

“She is very brave. She makes really big saves,” Feldman said. “She makes some mistakes, but she has responded to them really, really well. She’s competed and she’s not backing down.”