And just like that, the regular season comes to an end this weekend for the Boston University women’s soccer team.
The Terriers (7-10-1, 7-1 Patriot League) will look to complete arguably its most shocking in-season turnaround in program history when it hosts the United States Naval Academy Saturday afternoon at Nickerson Field.
This time last month, the Terriers were making progress, but still had a porous 2-10 record, worse than last season’s 3-4-3 start.
Now, however, BU has gone over a month since losing at Bucknell University on Sep. 18, and is riding an eight-match unbeaten streak into its matchup with the Midshipmen (8-9-2, 4-3-1 Patriot League).
A win over Navy this weekend, coupled with a Bison (13-1-2, 7-1 Patriot League) loss at the United States Military Academy, would give the Terriers an improbable league title for a second consecutive season. More importantly, they would host the Patriot League Tournament as a No. 1 seed.
BU will march into its last regular-season contest with loads of confidence, especially from the recent play of freshman forward Kelly Park.
The San Jose, California native, who has stepped in admirably following junior forward Christina Wakefield’s season-ending injury, is fresh off scoring a brace last weekend against the Black Knights (4-11-2, 2-4-2 Patriot League) and being named Patriot League Rookie of the Week.
“What people don’t see is the work players do to get here, and [Park] came in fully prepared,” BU head coach Nancy Feldman said. “She did everything she needed to do as a first-year player to come in and be able to compete right away physically, and that’s not always the case.
“Some freshmen don’t quite understand the conditioning demands … and as I said, her strength was very good cause she had to rehab some injuries and had to pay particular attention to her strength, and that’s how everything started.”
Feldman credited Park’s ever-growing presence to a personality that exudes confidence due to her technical abilities on the pitch, but also one that shows humility and ability to stay grounded.
Although the Terriers will look to the rookie to help lead the offensive charge, they will need to stand up to a perhaps underrated Midshipmen attack.
Their overall record, like the Terriers’, borders on mediocrity, but they’re above .500 in league play and are also a tough road-team, evidenced by their winning record away from Annapolis, Maryland.
Navy also possesses some stout scoring threats in midfielder Rachel Feldman and forward Clare MacAdam.
In Feldman, the Midshipmen have a senior who is top-10 in the Patriot League in almost every major offensive category, including shots, points and goals. Alongside her is the junior MacAdam, who has put up the second-most shots in the league.
Coupled with midfielders Cadie Higginson and Karli Sottung, who combined have eight goals and 20 points to their names, BU will have its hands full defensively.
“We know we’re going to see a well-conditioned, physically strong team that plays with a really good competitive mentality,” Feldman said. “They’ve got a very special attacking personality in Clare Macadam, who takes a lot of shots and scores a lot of goals. They’re also very experienced in goal … they have a deep roster, so they’re a 90-minute team.”
While the Terriers and Midshipmen’s status in the Patriot League Tournament is secured, Feldman believes that regardless of that, she believes Navy, like BU, will want to go into postseason play in good form.
“[Their seeding] doesn’t really change whether they have a home quarterfinal game or not,” Feldman said, “but that extra bit of motivation is there and I think everybody who’s playing in the postseason wants to enter postseason play feeling really good about their performance, and the way you do that is you keep on playing your best soccer.”
