By Jill Saftel, News Staff
Sophomore goalkeeper Paige Burnett’s career-high 12 saves weren’t enough to fend off the No. 6 Boston College Eagle offense as the Huskies fell 2-0 in Newton, Mass., Wednesday night.
BC senior Kristen Mewis put the first goal on the board from a feed from junior Gibby Wagner in the 77th minute.
The Eagles took their lead to two for the 2-0 final in the last ten minutes on a goal by McKenzie Meehan, but Burnett’s goalkeeping skills were the highlight of the match, as she notched six saves and 12 shots through the first 45 minutes.
The Huskies battled through against stiff competition from the Eagles, Zoller took a knee to her face about halfway through the first period, leaving her face down on the field for a minute before she was able to walk it off and resume play.
When junior forward Hanna Terry took a shot from the left corner of the box nearly twenty minutes into the second half, it looked as if she’d put Northeastern on the board, but her shot went just wide.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team tonight. I’m so proud of our effort, I’m so proud of our level of concentration. They just played hard for each other and really good soccer against an incredible opponent. BC is ranked in the top ten for a reason,” head coach Tracey Leone said after the game.
“We started to come together tonight, every piece of it … We started to tap into a mental toughness and a level of playing for each other we haven’t quite seen yet that’s kind of been developing over time.”
August was not kind to the Northeastern women’s soccer team as it took them until Aug. 31 to clinch their first win of the season, topping the University of New Hampshire 3-2 at Parsons Field after scoring just one goal total in the previous three games.
“We’re still learning a lot about each other and it takes time to get in sync with one another,” said Leone. “As long as we keep working hard results will come, but they really are coming together.”
The team has a new look after losing seven seniors to graduation in the spring. More than half of the squad’s 2012 roster is made up of freshmen and sophomores. The new mix of players, and their different styles, has prompted the team to focus on clicking as a cohesive unit, Burnett said.
“People are starting to get comfortable playing with each other now and that’s a big part of what’s been going on, we’ve been getting used to everybody,” she said. “With so many seniors graduated and eight new freshmen, it’s a big change for us.”
One of those seniors was forward Veronica Napoli, who broke the program’s all-time scoring record during her final season in 2011.
Napoli, who now plays professionally with the Boston Breakers, accounted for ten of Northeastern’s 28 goals last season, with 36 scored in her career in red and black.
“When you lose a player like Veronica you’re going to fill that void through a lot of players,” Leone said. “Devin [Griffin] is going to help fill that void when she gets some games under her belt. Greta [Samuelsdottir] has jumpstarted and other players just have to step up their game.”
Leone also cited sophomore Lahaina Zoller as one of quite a few players to fill the void left by Napoli. Zoller had an assist on Samuelsdottir’s goal in the UNH victory.
With such a young team, Leone said she has the opportunity to mold her players and hopes to do so through a challenging non-conference schedule before taking on tough Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) foes. Georgia State University comes to Parsons Field Sept. 21 to open CAA play.
“I think we’re really trying to develop a culture with this program and our players are understanding how important that is,” Leone said. “If we take it one day at a time and we just keep working together, I think we’re going to do well within our conference. You want to do as well as you can outside the conference, but at the same time, conference play is really important and we have such a great conference, so it’s going to be exciting.”
Leone and her squad learned just how great the CAA was last season when they defeated George Mason University in a penalty kick thriller to advance to the CAA Tournament semifinals. The team suffered a heartbreaking end to their season the following night when the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams eliminated them from postseason play with a 1-0 win.
While last season’s tournament is behind them, it serves as motivation for this year’s success, said Burnett.
“It’s a big motivating factor for all of us,” she said. “Looking back, being a part of that George Mason game was one of the coolest things for us as a team, and playing the next day with a lot of injuries and fighting together as a team and losing, we all learned a lot from it. We’re all really motivated by it and want to get further this year.”
The Huskies will take on the University of Dayton Flyers Sunday at 1 p.m. at Parsons Field.
