Led by an impregnable defense and an outstanding goalkeeping tandem of senior Jane Reilly and sophomore Annie Tooley, the Boston University women’s soccer team fought to overtime draws against both Loyola College in Maryland and No. 7 West Virginia University to cap off their Labor Day weekend.
‘ ‘The performance of the whole team defensively, as a group was good,’ BU coach Nancy Feldman said. ‘It was not just the defense and the goalkeeping of Reilly and Tooley, but the defending of the entire team. We were particularly pleased with our defending during the West Virginia game. The team defending was really good, and our players did a good job covering for each other.’ ?
On Friday night, BU drew to a 1-1 tie against Loyola at Geppi-Aikens Field in Baltimore, Md. Senior Farrell McClernon opened up the scoring for the Terriers in the 78th minute off a feed from senior Emily Pallotta. The 1-0 lead appeared to be enough for the Terriers to get their third victory of the season, but Loyola’s Christina Gomez headed in the game-tying goal with one second remaining in the game, sending it into overtime.?
Excellent goalkeeping and strokes of bad luck dominated the extra twenty minutes. Loyola tested Tooley, who played the second half and both overtimes after Reilly got the start, but the sophomore was still able to make two crucial saves that kept the score knotted at 1-1. BU sophomore Krista Minto’s header with about 20 seconds remaining in the second overtime looked like the game-winner, but the ball smacked against the post.?
On Sunday afternoon, the Terriers traveled to Morgantown, W.Va., to take on the No. 7 Mountaineers. Once again, defense and the duo of Reilly and Tooley proved to be the stars of the show. ?In front of a crowd of 1,102, the Terriers hustled and scrapped to a 0-0 draw against the Big East powerhouse.
Combined with a strong effort in a 2-0 loss at No. 16 Boston College last week, Feldman said the Terriers are working through their non-conference schedule with a lot of confidence.
‘Our effort against BC was quite good,’ Feldman said. ‘[The Eagles] scored an early goal off of a defensive breakdown, and they ended up winning the game. It is important to get results, wins, because we measure ourselves against the quality of our performances. I feel like we have a good team and that we can play with anyone in the country. Our confidence has already been built by the games that we’ve played in so far this season.’
‘ ‘After playing West’ Virginia, who’s ranked seventh, we really saw how much potential we have against quality teams,’ Tooley said. ‘Our defense and team defending as a whole was great and our offense created opportunities to score, but we just have to start capitalizing on those.’?
In the first half alone, West Virginia outshot BU 8-0, forcing Reilly, in her 45 minutes of action, to make four saves. Tooley started in net for the second half, and just like her teammate Reilly, she was bombarded by a relentless West Virginia offense. In the second half, the Mountaineers unleashed a flurry of twelve shots against Tooley, forcing her to make five saves.?
Just like in the Loyola game, 90 minutes was not enough to settle this contest; another 20 minutes of extra time was needed. BU outshot WVU 4-3 in the overtime periods, with shots from freshman Megan McGoldrick, sophomore Jessica Luscinski and junior Shauna Kelleher.?Tooley, in her 65 minutes in goal, made only one save in the two overtime periods, pushing her total saves for the game to six. Reilly, Tooley and the defense recorded their third shutout of the season against West Virginia.
The Terriers resume their six-game road trip on Friday when they go up against the University of Connecticut on Friday, Sept. 11 and No. 12 Penn State University on Sunday, Sept. 13. Connecticut is coming off its first win of the season, a 3-1 victory over Harvard University. Penn State, in its last game, was shut out by Rutgers University, 1-0.
‘I think I can stand for everyone when I say that we are all really excited,’ Tooley said about playing in the UConn Classic. ‘UConn and Penn State will be two more great games and we’re motivated and ready to win.’
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