Women’s soccer earns draw against Lehigh

In what has become a theme of the 2014-15 campaign, the Boston University women’s soccer team dominated possession for most of Saturday’s contest at Lehigh University, but failed to pull away from its opponent and settled for a 1-1 tie.

With the draw, both the Terriers (6-3-3, 2-0-2 Patriot League) and the Mountain Hawks (4-3-2, 2-0-2 Patriot League) remain tied for second place in the conference standings behind Colgate University.

From the opening whistle, the Terriers took control of the contest. Led by the solid presence of junior center midfielder McKenzie Hollenbaugh, BU continually denied the Mountain Hawks the ball and held possession inside Lehigh’s defensive half.

Despite this disparity, neither team recorded a shot on net through thirty minutes of play. Finally in the 31st minute, Hollenbaugh broke free from her defenders in the midfield, dribbled upfield and sent a through ball for sophomore forward Erica Kosienski.

The reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Year collected the ball at the top of the 18 yard box and took a low left-footed shot to the far post that found its way past goalkeeper Ani Nahapetian.

The goal was Kosienski’s first of the season. After leading the Terriers in goal scoring with eight during the 2013 season, the sophomore had yet to make her mark on the scoreboard unit. BU coach Nancy Feldman said she hopes Kosienski’s goal will open the floodgates.

“Goal scorers judge themselves on their ability to score, and Erica considers herself a goal scorer,” Feldman said. “I think it was a frustration for her. She has been doing other things that are important for a forward on our team, but it definitely was weighing on her.

“Hopefully that unlocks it for her, and there will be many more to come…Individually, Erica has a high standard and expectation, and that’s not a bad thing. Besides the fact that we tied the game, I think she’s relieved a little bit that she was able to get on track with her finishing.”

Feldman also complimented the play of Hollenbaugh, who has made the switch this season from center back to a more attacking center midfield role.

“That entry pass that McKenzie was able to play that Erica scored on was a really awesome final pass,” Feldman said. “It showed her ability to be a two-way player.”

BU kept up the pressure in the closing minutes of the opening half. The Terriers nearly made it a 2-0 game in the 39th minute when senior center defender Kai Miller played the ball into Kosienski, who then sent it down the right sideline for senior forward Taylor Krebs. Krebs served a high ball in toward the net that nearly crept into the goal before hitting the right post.

Lehigh came out in the second half with a shift in formation that caught the Terriers off-guard. The Mountain Hawks earned their first shot of the game when senior Danielle Salans’ rebound attempt off a corner kick went wide of the net in the 51st minute.

As BU struggled to adjust, Lehigh continued to push ahead. In the 66th minute, the Mountain Hawks equalized the score after forward Grace Correll’s shot off a throw-in deflected off senior Darby Wiegand and into senior goalkeeper Alyssa Parisi’s net.

“We lost that rhythm a little bit in the second half, and some of that was due to Lehigh’s adjustments,” Feldman said. We had to change a little bit of what we were doing defensively and change what we were doing in attack…Credit to Lehigh that they were able to find a way to kind of disrupt our flow.”

Feldman’s squad refused to panic after the goal and regained control of the game in the midfield. The Terriers nearly went ahead just four minutes later when Krebs dribbled through the Lehigh defense and sent a cross into the box that connected with the head of junior forward Jenna Fisher, whose attempt on goal hit off a defender and went out of bounds.

The action intensified through the end of regulation. Parisi made the first of her three saves of the afternoon off a close range shot from Wiegand in the 72nd minute. Just over two minutes later, senior forward Ana Cuffia got a chance off a free kick, but her strike fell right into the hands of Nahapetian.

BU had two scoring opportunities in the final minute of regulation. First, junior midfielder Clare Pleuler received the ball inside the penalty box and took a shot that was cleared away by the Mountain Hawk defense.

The Terriers corralled the rebound and sent the ball back into the box, where it bounced around before it found its way to senior midfielder Jamie Turchi, who stood just feet away from the goal. Turchi hit a last second attempt as time expired, but Nahapetian came up big for Lehigh to send the game to extra time.

Playing in its fourth overtime contest of the season, Feldman’s team looked solid defensively, but could not muster up a solid chance of its own through the extra 20 minutes, and the contest ended in a tie.

Much like its previous ties with the United States Military Academy on Sept. 27 and the University of Akron on Sept. 12, BU controlled the stat sheet — outshooting Lehigh by nine — but failed to pull away on the scoreboard when it mattered most. Feldman said that in order to combat this, her team must diversify its offensive attack instead of mainly relying on crosses.

“When we have the ball in the final third and we’re set up, I think we have to play to our strengths a little bit more and have a little bit more precision, a little bit more playing-to-feet, a little bit better combinations,” Feldman said. “That definitely is an area that we have to do a bit better job of to create more goal scoring chances. Service is good, but we have to diversify and be better in the other areas of final third play.”

Overall, although Feldman said she was dissatisfied with the final result, she said she was happy with the way her team performed.

“From the middle of the second half to the overtime we had more of the play,” Feldman said. “We had a couple of chances, and we just couldn’t put a second one away. I told the team, it’s disappointing to tie and not get three points. However, we also judge ourselves on our performance, and I thought our performance was good. I thought it was a step in the right direction for this team as we are putting it together this year.”