Women’s soccer battles to 1-1 draw at Dartmouth

While the Boston University women’s soccer team could have added onto its five-game unbeaten streak on Wednesday in a 1-1 tie on the road against Dartmouth College, they instead saw a familiar — and somewhat frustrating, — result.

Remarkably, BU (9-3-3, 4-1 Patriot League) managed to escape the first half with the lead, while only making two shots on goal. Following their first test against Dartmouth (5-4-3), from a strike by junior forward Taylor Krebs in the 19th minute, the Terriers rebounded in the 37th minute, when freshman forward Erica Kosienski blasted the ball inside the right post from a splitting pass by junior midfielder Jamie Turchi to give the Terriers the lead.

Sophomore defender Lauren MacLellan almost added to the Terriers’ lead in the 67th minute, but missed wide with the shot against Dartmouth goalie Tatiana Saunders.

Despite holding onto the lead for the majority of the game, the Terriers could not close the door on the Big Green. The wheels began to fall off when the Terriers  gave up consecutive corner kicks.

Then, due to swift attacking play in the 84th minute, senior goalkeeper Andrea Green was taken out of the net by Dartmouth midfielder Emma Brush, and a quick pass by defender Jackie Friedman was all the 2012 Ivy League Rookie of the Year needed for the goal.

“That was an unfortunate goal,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “It was a little fluky, but you know that number 10 [Delaney], that’s just gonna be a really tough kid because she’s just so fast. I thought we did a good job on her and I thought we defended really well.

“I thought in the second half, we kind of lost our way a little bit, and got a little choppy. We were holding the ball a bit too long. I thought we lost our composure and our patience a little bit, but that’s being super critical. I thought we played a great soccer game.”

Both teams would not challenge each other much afterwards, resulting in the third overall double-overtime match for BU.

Green, along with senior midfielder Megan McGoldrick and junior defender Kai Miller, managed to hold out an aggressive Dartmouth attack that continuously tested the defense’s resolve. The Dartmouth assault, in the end, recorded six total shots and three shots on goal shared between the offense’s front five players.

The Terriers also surprisingly did not made any substitutions in overtime, as four starters – senior midfielder Emma Clark, senior defender Erin Mullen, sophomore defender McKenzie Hollenbaugh and Miller – played all 110 minutes of the game.

“No one wants to [play double overtime],”Miller said. “But if it gets you the win, or at least the tie, it’s what you have to do. We definitely put on a show in the first half … but we lost it in the second half and we tried to get it back at the end. Overall I think we played well.”

“That’s a challenge,” Feldman said in regard to coaching double overtime. “Fatigue comes into it … and at this point some of it is a balance between keeping them fit and keeping them fresh.”

Perhaps the Terriers’ best opportunity to snatch victory came during the final stretch of second overtime, when Turchi and Clark had consecutive shots within a few minutes of one another. Both threats were easily nullified by Dartmouth’s defense, led by Saunders.

“They’ve got a great midfield [that was] particularly strong,” Feldman said. “It was about the same personnel as last year … and we didn’t play nearly as well, we didn’t dominate nearly as well as I thought we did tonight physically. [Dartmouth players] are fast, they’re good. Our team and our midfield did a great job controlling most of the flow of the game and keeping possession.”