By Jill Saftel, News Staff
The women’s soccer team was eliminated from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament Friday night when it fell to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) 1-0, after the Rams put home a corner kick in the second half. Northeastern had less than twenty-four hours to gear up for the semifinal matchup, after facing George Mason University (GMU) hours before.
Much of Northeastern’s game against VCU remained a scoreless one. It was not until the Rams’ Meaghan Dullea put a header past freshman Paige Burnett with 48:30 to play that VCU took the lead and kept it, outing the Huskies from the CAA tournament and ending their season with a 1-0 victory.
Senior forward Veronica Napoli, who finished the season with a team-leading 10 goals, and head coach Tracey Leone agreed that while Thursday night’s game took a toll on Northeastern, the Huskies tried their hardest.
“Playing back to back is definitely really challenging,” Napoli said. “The first half wasn’t too bad, but the second half we definitely started to really feel it. We really did give it our best so I have no regrets. They scored a goal off a corner and it was a good goal. There was nothing we could really do about it.”
Like Napoli, Leone had no regrets about the way things turned out, despite a failure to capture an NCAA tournament birth.
“We ran out of legs in the second half,” Leone said. “There was a lot of mental fatigue from such an exciting game the night before and the physical fatigue, of course. They really left it out there, and that’s all you can ask, that you put everything you have into it and they did. Then you can look back and have no regrets.”
Not unlike their semifinal match against VCU, much of the Huskies matchup Thursday night against GMU remained scoreless.
GMU’s Tiana Kallenberger gave her team a 1-0 lead with just six minutes to play in the CAA quarterfinal match, it looked as if the Huskies playoff run would be cut short, but freshman Awnalisa Walker scored her first collegiate goal with 45 seconds to play, sending the game to overtime. The Huskies would go on to win the game 4-2.
Walker got her chance when senior midfielder Kirby Anderson took a free kick that found its way into the box, leaving her with the opportunity to take a shot on the right side of the net.
“We kept fighting and fighting and scored with 45 seconds left which was a real thrill,” Leone said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of scoring a goal that late at such a high level.”
Neither GMU nor Northeastern was able to find the back of the net throughout the course of two overtime periods, which sent the match to penalty kicks, something the team hadn’t seen in any of its conference games this season.
The Huskies were perfect on the offensive side of the shootout, with Anderson, sophomore forward Hanna Terry, junior forward Greta Samuelsdottir and senior defender Georgina Kemp each sinking their shots.
“They were calm composed, confident and prepared. They got up there and hit them one after another,” Leone said. “To invest that much in a game and have it come out in your favor was amazing.”
Burnett stopped two of GMU’s four attempts in the shootout, giving Northeastern the victory with a 4-2 advantage in penalty kicks.
“It was really exciting, not just for me but for the rest of the team. Winning that game on Thursday night was such an exciting high, to be going in as the sixth seed and beating the third seed, it was crazy,” Burnett said. “For me, all the pressure was on the shooter, so I just looked at it as trying to have fun and make as many saves as I could and I ended up making two so that was awesome.”
Leone said officials and spectators alike commented on Burnett’s impressive freshman performance, telling her it was some of the best goaltending they’d ever seen.
“She has been fantastic all season long and is establishing herself as one of the premier goalkeepers in the country,” Leone said. “She’s so hungry to get better and that’s one of her best qualities, she doesn’t rest on any accomplishment she may get. There’s not a keeper in the country I would want over Paige.”
