After her team beat the University of Maryland-Baltimore County 8-0 this past Sunday at Nickerson Field, Boston University women’s soccer coach Nancy Feldman couldn’t find much wrong with her team’s performance.
Wednesday’s 2-0 win for the Terriers (15-2-1, 7-0 America East Conference) against Dartmouth College (3-10, 1-3 Ivy League), however, was a bit of a different story.
“It wasn’t a very pretty game,” Feldman said.
After BU took control of the ball in the opening minutes, Dartmouth dominated play in the first half. The Big Green advanced deep into BU’s territory on a regular basis, though the Terriers were able to limit them to merely three shots. Only one of those shots was on goal. Another shot hit the left post, narrowly missing a goal.
BU took five shots in the first half, a handful of which came off of free kicks awarded as a result of Dartmouth’s six fouls in the opening frame.
The Big Green, with 11 yellow cards against its players this season, were called for various fouls three times in the second half.
In the locker room at halftime, Feldman said she told her team members they needed to be more aggressive in their play.
“I thought we weren’t moving,” Feldman said of the first half. “I thought our movement off the ball needed to be better and I thought we needed to put more pressure on them defensively–both individually and collectively.”
Feldman said she saw somewhat of an improvement in the second half when her team took six shots and scored its two goals.
The two teams remained scoreless for 79 minutes, until senior forward Tiya Gallegos found the back of the net for the Terriers. The forward scored off of a cross from sophomore midfielder Megan McGoldrick.
“It felt great, obviously, when we scored,” Gallegos said.
The goal was Gallegos’ second in as many games, and sixth in the past seven games. She is now one goal removed from being tied for the most goals on the team with senior midfielder Jess Luscinski and sophomore midfielder Kylie Strom.
Five minutes later, Luscinski chipped the ball from the left side of the Dartmouth half, about 20 yards away from the goal. Sophomore forward Madison Clemens found the ball in a scrum in front of the goal, and headed it in to the net, sealing the win for the Terriers.
“I was pretty far away from the goal when Jess got in the corner, but I knew she’d get the cross off, so I was sprinting as fast as I could and then I just did anything I could to put it in the goal,” Clemens said.
The goal was Clemens’ fourth of the season.
Luscinski’s assist was her sixth, and it reaffirmed her position as the Terriers assist leader.
The conditions during the contest were of no help to either team as the game started with a moderate amount of rainfall. By the end, the rain had given way to more of a mist, but the wind had picked up significantly.
“To be fair to our student-athletes, the conditions were not perfect to play a perfectly clean soccer game,” Feldman said.
Despite performing at a level that Feldman did not consider it’s best, the team secured its 10th-straight victory.
The Terriers have one regular season game remaining, their America East finale against the University of Hartford on Sunday, before beginning the postseason.
The Hawks are currently 6-0-0 in America East play, and are 13-0-2 overall. Hartford travels to upstate New York this evening to face the University of Albany before coming to Nickerson Field for the final game.
“It’s an opportunity to win the regular season championship,” Feldman said. “We’ve put ourselves in that position – they have too, so it’s exciting. It’s what you work for all year long.”
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