All it takes is one victory, one step in the right direction, for a team to rebound from a losing streak and get back on track. The Boston University women’s soccer team is hoping that Wednesday night’s road win against Brown University will prove to be that stepping stone toward future success.
As the team prepares for today’s matchup against the University of Minnesota (3-3-0), the Terriers (3-4-0) realize they need to string together some wins and gain consistency if they hope to salvage their season.
“It’s important to go into every game getting after a win,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “I’m not so concerned with what’s happened before. We look at every game as a single entity. We have to look forward to what we can do to win this game. The results before and after this match don’t really have a lot to do with anything. How we perform, the progress we make, there is a connection there.”
An unfathomably challenging non-conference schedule has BU looking up at the .500 mark after dropping four of its first six matches in shutout defeats. A solid victory Wednesday — even though the Terriers didn’t control the came as they would have liked to — closed the book on a disappointing first chapter of the 2007 season.
Today’s bout with Minnesota will pit the Terriers against a team with a style of play similar to their own. The Golden Gophers come to Boston having scored 14 goals in just six games, whereas the Terriers’ lone goal against Brown was their third in seven games. Minnesota’s high-powered offense may run into a wall against the suffocating BU defense. Just five balls have made their way past the Terrier goalkeeping tandem of freshman Janie Reilly and senior Christina Reuter.
Minnesota, led by junior forward Lindsey Schwartz’s four goals, poses a potent offensive attack ready to challenge the BU defense.
“We have to do a good job of winning first ball and a better job of winning second ball, which we didn’t do well against Brown,” Feldman said. “We have to be very touch-tight and be very strong in our marking in the box, both midfielders and our backs.”
BU has been able to control possession well this season, but has encountered trouble when the team moves into the offensive zone. Shots have found their way over the net on several occasions, a sign that the team has been pressing a little too much and forcing shots.
“I think the key is to keep composure,” Feldman said. “It’s easy to say and hard to do. We practice the things that we want to keep getting better at. You fall back on what you have had success on in practice.”
If the Terriers can take better advantage of the scoring chances they earn, the defense has shown that it will be able to pull off single-goal victories. BU has held its opponents scoreless three times already, and only Stanford University, a top-five nationally ranked program, has scored more than once on the Terriers. The defense will certainly be tested against Minnesota, and Feldman is well aware of the attack the Golden Gophers bring to the field.
“They’re a very good team, very potent in the attack,” Feldman said. “They score a boatload of goals and play an aggressive style — high press. They’ve played an excellent schedule and gotten very dramatic results, with some pretty significant and complete victories.”
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