Looking to move on after a rough West Coast trip that resulted in losses against No.3 Stanford University and Santa Clara University, the Boston University women’s soccer team returned home Friday night to take on the University of Massachusetts.
An early goal by UMass (3–4), coupled with BU’s (3–5–1) inability to find the back of the net, led to UMass leaving Nickerson Field with a 1–0 victory.
The Terriers seemed to be in control at the beginning of the game, as they had complete possession of the ball and were given two corner kicks within the first five minutes.
However, a miscue by both the Terriers’ defense and junior goalkeeper Andrea Green allowed UMass freshman Jackie Bruno to score the first goal of her collegiate career just 6:54 into the game.
After the early goal by the Minutewomen, BU desperately attempted to even the score, but was unable to get anything going against UMass senior goalkeeper Emily Cota, who made seven saves in her season debut.
“[Cota] had a great game,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “We didn’t keep corner kicks away from her enough … She was very steady.”
Although Bruno’s goal was made possible by a breakdown from the back line, BU’s defense played well for the remainder of the game, limiting the Minutewomen to only one shot in the entire second half.
Despite that BU did not score a goal, they held possession of the ball for a majority of the game, outshot UMass 12 to 4 — including a 7–3 advantage on shots on goal — and led UMass in corner kicks, 10–0.
With so many offensive chances and so little to show for it, the inability to score has become a frustrating issue for the Terriers.
We created enough chances, and I thought we did some good things,” Feldman said. “We should have had a goal or two tonight.”
In the loss to the minutewomen, the Terriers outshot UMass 12–4, including an 8–3 advantage in the first half.
Of those shots, seven BU shots were on goal while only three UMass shots were on goal.
BU earned a lot more corners than the minutewomen as well, as the Terriers earned 10 while UMass did not take a single one.
Junior forward Madison Clemens led the Terriers in shots with three, while freshman midfielder Rachel Blauner, who missed the first seven games of the season with a leg injury, led the team with two shots on goal.
Coach Feldman was particularly excited to see Blauner performing well on the pitch.
“You can see how dynamic she is … I think she should be a key player for us … She started out preseason really well before she got hurt,” Feldman said.”She’s dynamic, she’s explosive, she’s aggressive, she’s got good skill, so it was good to get her back in there. I think she should be helping us down the line with our attack.”
Despite the “disappointing” loss, Feldman still found many gains to take away from the game, saying, “I thought we played pretty well … The positives are that the players are getting better, and I think people have a better understanding of how to work as a unit. … Performance-wise, I think we’re taking steps forward.”
In spite of the loss on Friday,BU still leads the all-time series between the Terriers and the Minutewomen with a 5–3 record.
BU will end its non-conference stint with a road game against North Carolina State University on Thursday.
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