The past two seasons, the Boston University women’s soccer team made it hard on itself.
Dating back to last season, the Terriers (9-11-1, 8-1 Patriot League) have seemed to make it a ritual of starting slow coming out the gate.
An 0-4-2 winless start to 2015 plagued BU head coach Nancy Feldman’s side, but following a Sept. 13 win over Hofstra University, her team rolled through the competition.
After that first victory, the Terriers won 12 of their last 15 matches, and garnered accolades ranging from a Patriot League regular season title to a third consecutive league championship to even a 2-1 NCAA Tournament First Round-overtime victory at St. John’s University.
Coming into 2016, Feldman’s squad tried to put last season’s beginning in the rear-view mirror, but it didn’t, and thus began the Terriers’ worst start in program history.
Ten matches went by, all ending in losses.
Instead of cracking once league play began, the Terriers — like last season — had ground to cover, but they were vociferous in their approach.
To close out the regular season, BU outscored opponents 16-5 in its 8-0-1 finish going into postseason play.
Their nine-match unbeaten streak culminated in the most unlikely of achievements, with the Terriers reclaiming at least a share of the league crown with Bucknell University in consecutive seasons after their 2-0 regular-season finale triumph over the United States Naval Academy.
Although a 2-1 overtime loss in the championship game of the Patriot League Tournament to the NCAA Tourney bound-Bison (16-2-2, 8-1 Patriot League) ended BU’s season a little earlier than it did last season, there was no shame in the comeback it achieved.
With the end outcome shocking yet impressive, Feldman attributed her team’s turnaround to its gradual understanding of their playing system.
“We were able to get our system down with a little bit more consistency in how we were wanting to play and where players were plugged in,” Feldman said. “It took us a couple of weeks for a few reasons: to get the right personnel for the system, and then to get practices in at being a unit.”
Similar to last season, the Terriers had a brutal schedule to open 2016.
With a nonconference slate, which saw BU travel to No. 13 University of Connecticut and Virginia Tech University coupled with tough home matchups against Pac-12 side Arizona State University and AAC foe University of Cincinnati, it had its work cut out, which Feldman acknowledged.
“Our nonconference schedule is challenging every year,” Feldman said. “When it takes a little bit more trial and error at the beginning, sometimes you can do that while still getting W’s, and sometimes the learning is a little bit more painful and we just weren’t quite able to get those couple of wins early on to kind of feel like we were even. We were always sort of chasing it at the beginning.”
Feldman also said she saw growth in some of the underclassmen that proved to be season-changing.
First Team All-Patriot League sophomore midfielder Julianna Chen showed persistence and helped shore up the BU defense alongside graduate student Rachel Blauner, Patriot League Defender of the Year Rachel Bloznalis and junior defender Alivya Wimmer.
Freshman forward Kelly Park, who filled in following a season-ending injury to junior forward Christina Wakefield, notched six points. Come next season, Park will be a strong counter to sophomore forward McKenna Doyle, whose 11 points led the team.
While the play of her underclassmen helped, Feldman admitted that she doesn’t believe her team’s reclaiming of the league title would’ve been possible had it not been for her senior class.
Goalkeeper Bridget Conway manned the goal alongside junior Hannah Ciolek, Bloznalis anchored the BU backline, forward Erica Kosienski finished third on the team with eight points, and Blauner and Ellen Starnes helped lead by example, encouraging their teammates that success was on the horizon.
“The seniors were critical,” Feldman said. “How they go, we go. They stabilized things with their positivity and their examples in training and their support of the younger players. If we didn’t have that, then we wouldn’t have ended up as regular season co-champs. It would’ve disintegrated in front of us. We wouldn’t have gotten through the hard times.”
