The Boston University women’s soccer team has won its past three games. However, all three matches have been on home turf. On the road, they have yet to win once. As they travel to Washington on Saturday for a Patriot League matchup against American University, the Terriers will hope to snag their first road victory of the season.
“We’re certainly in a better spot than we were a couple of weeks ago,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “We’re only dependent on our performance in the next game. We feel good right now, but if we don’t pay attention to the details and what is working for us, we’re not going to be successful.”
Unlike the Terriers (3-4-2, 1-0 Patriot League), the Eagles (3-6, 0-1 Patriot League) have a losing home record. They have only claimed one victory out of the three games they have played on Reeves Field this season.
While BU seems to have found its groove, American has remained inconsistent. In their last two games, the Eagles have averaged 4.5 shots. In the previous two, they tallied 16 apiece.
This inconsistency has caused American to alternate wins and losses over its past five games. The Eagles had a similar start in 2014 and lost their last 11 games, ending the season with a 3-15 record and a 0-9 mark in the Patriot League. BU shut out American 3-0 last year, one of 10 blanks suffered by the Eagles.
The Terriers have been improving their overall game play the entire season, but it has been most obvious in the past three games. Feldman commented on the encouraging signs she has seen from her squad as of late.
“We’ve started to show our postseason attack in how we’re moving the ball,” Feldman said. “Our mobility has been good, and we’ve been maintaining tempo in attack, which has been missing. But you could see it growing from the Hofstra [University] game to the Bucknell [University] game, there has definitely been improvement in that.”
On the back line, Feldman believes her team has adjusted to a more aggressive style of play.
“Defensively, we’ve made a little more of a commitment to defending all of the midfield,” Feldman said, “and some of that is organizationally they have a better understanding of when they can high press and can feel confident about it. In general, the confidence has been growing, it certainly started with the Hofstra [(6-3)] game. A big part of having success is being confident in what you’re doing individually.”
Recent matches aside, the Eagles and the Terriers are statistically similar. Eight players in scarlet and white have scored this year, showing that their offense has broken out of the slump it suffered earlier this season. Although the Terriers only scored three goals in the first six games of the season, they have scored eight in their last three matches. They now average 1.22 goals per game.
Freshman striker McKenna Doyle has impressed this year with her strong on-field presence. She has scored two goals this season. Junior forward Erica Kosienski also has two goals, both of which she scored in BU’s 4-0 clobbering of Bucknell (4-5-1, 0-1 Patriot League) on Sunday.
Seven Eagles have cracked the scoreboard this season, but only senior Kelly Donovan has found twine twice. American has struggled to produce offensively the past few seasons, and average 0.9 goals per game this year.
The Eagles have two senior goalkeepers, both of whom have started games this season. Courtney Bembenek has a goals against average of 1.94 and a save percentage of .625. American’s other option, Charlene Belanger, not only has a .757 save percentage, she has also already recorded two shutouts this season.
BU’s goalkeeper Alyssa Parisi has an equally impressive resume, though. The senior owns a 1.14 goals against average and has saved 77.8 percent of the 95 shots she has faced.
As similar as both teams are, Feldman does not think there is a set advantage for her team as it prepares for American.
“I don’t think we have an advantage,” Feldman said. “We have to go down there and put on a lot of pressure defensively. We have to connect passes and attack and make them defend our offense. You’re never going to beat any of these teams with an advantage. You just have to play the game.”
