Last season, it took the Boston University women’s soccer team six games to win its first contest, a 2-1 triumph over Hofstra University on Sept. 13, 2015.
It’s been 368 days since the Terriers’ (0-9) first victory from last season, and nine games into 2016, they’re still searching for that good fortune. BU’s struggles to open the season continued Thursday night as it dropped its last match before league play to crosstown rival Northeastern University, 2-0.
The Terriers played well throughout the first half, and they pressured Huskies (4-4-1) goalkeeper Nathalie Nidetch from the opening whistle.
In opening minutes of the game, BU forced a corner for senior captain Rachel Bloznalis, but her cross sailed over her teammates and away from the net.
In the fifth minute, another Bloznalis set-piece fell to the head of sophomore midfielder Julianna Chen, whose header drifted just over the crossbar.
Despite its best efforts to put one past Nidetch, BU was outshot 9-6 through the first 45 minutes of the contest. BU head coach Nancy Feldman wished her team had kept its composure a bit more.
“I thought we started well,” Feldman said. “I thought we lost our way a little bit though. There was a portion of the first half where we were a little impatient and started playing a little too direct. We didn’t keep hold of the ball, and then we got it back again [especially] in the second half.”
It was the Huskies who finally broke through and scored that all-important goal in the 29th minute.
After Northeastern stripped away possession from BU’s other captain and graduate student midfielder Rachel Blauner, Huskies sophomore Hannah Rosenblatt sent a through-ball up to teammate forward Kayla Cappuzzo. The Merrick, New York native shot it past Terrier senior goalkeeper Bridget Conway to give the Huskies the 1-0 lead.
Through nine games, BU has still failed to score a goal in the opening half.
“We’re getting more and more comfortable with how we want to attack,” Feldman said. “We’re making lots and lots of progress, but unfortunately, we’re not seeing the results of the progress.”
While the first half of play was very much a back-and-forth effort exchange between BU and Northeastern, the second half lacked that intense action.
Any chance at a Terriers comeback ended in the 74th minute, as a Huskies set-piece from just inside BU’s half fell in front of forward Carly Wilhelm.
The Northeastern junior blasted a left-foot shot into the far right post, stunning Conway and the Terriers and putting the Huskies up by a pair.
Many parallels can be drawn to last year when analyzing BU’s offensive struggles. Through the team’s 0-4-2 start last season, they were being outscored 10-3 and had netted goals in just three of six contests.
From that key win over Hofstra forward, BU outscored opponents 34-14 on its way to a league championship and a victory in the NCAA tournament over St. John’s University.
It will take a stellar comeback by Feldman and her squad if they look to reach similar success in the 2016 campaign.
When compared to the other 326 Division I women’s soccer programs, Feldman’s side has scored the 10th fewest goals in the country (2), and its goals against average ranks 274th in the country (2.125).
It can be mentally draining to play so many games and end up on the wrong side of so many final scores, but Feldman is still looking at her team’s season through an optimistic lens.
“I love this team,” Feldman said. “There’s nothing wrong with this team. If they can not feel heavy about the results and about the record, we’ll go into the second half of the season with the right mindset that what we’re doing is fine and good.”
Feldman, now in her 22nd season with the team, is confident that they will turn it around once Patriot League play begins.
“Where we are right now in our approach and creating goal-scoring opportunities like we did tonight, it’s going to start to tip our way,” Feldman said. “We just have to keep grinding it out.”
