By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
The Huskies kick off their postseason with a semifinal Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament clash with third-seeded James Madison University tomorrow night, and with it will come a potent realization: what happened in the regular season no longer matters.
The fact that the second-ranked Huskies had a six-game winning streak at one point – and at another point a 12-match unbeaten streak – is now meaningless. Their 15 consecutive games without a loss at home is a moot point until next August when they return to Parsons Field, as no postseason games will come to Boston – the tournament is being hosted by first-place Drexel University in Philadelphia. Even the 1-0 win Northeastern managed over JMU on Oct. 6 carries little-to-no weight now.
Friday at 5 p.m. marks the start of the Huskies’ playoffs. Their second season. The time of the year when records, standings and seeds mean nothing, every team is on a level playing field and 90 minutes – or more, should the game go into overtime as eight of the Huskies’ regular season games did – of soccer decides everything.
Northeastern head coach Brian Ainscough said his team recognizes this and will not accept defeat.
“I think right now we know that what’s at stake is the CAA championship, and that’s what we’re going down [to Philadelphia] to do,” Ainscough said via telephone Wednesday.
The setting of tomorrow night’s game wasn’t what the Huskies (11-2-4, 6-1-3 CAA) had been envisioning all season. They rode their second consecutive undefeated home slate to the top of the CAA but failed to secure first place and the right to host the tournament after a 1-0 loss at Old Dominion University in the final game of the regular season on Nov. 2.
But the desired result – Northeastern’s first trip to the conference title game since 2009 – might still be attainable.
The Huskies will need to employ many of the tactics they used in their mid-season win over the Dukes (9-6-3, 6-2-2 CAA), including exploiting their speed on the outside of the flanks and controlling the tempo of the game through the midfield.
The Dukes squeaked out a 4-3 overtime win over the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in the quarterfinals on Monday night, while the Huskies are enjoying at least six days off between games for the second consecutive week following a first round bye.
But Ainscough said he isn’t concerned about fitness or a lack of focus. Instead, he said JMU might be the ones at a disadvantage for having to play two games in the same week.
“[Fitness is] a concern for [JMU] since they played on Monday,” Ainscough said. “This is a great time to get a break and rest some of our guys who are banged up. Getting rest is a key.”
A loss doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road for the Huskies, but their 2-2-1 record against teams in the RPI Top 50 will hurt their chances of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Ainscough said he will start Friday’s game with the same lineup he has used for the last several games, as he isn’t worried about their ability to show up in the biggest game of the season.
Instead, with two teams fighting for their seasons and everything on the line, he said his team will be ready for what’s ahead.
“We don’t really have any tricks up our sleeves,” Ainscough said. “We just hope that we’re more focused and have a real sense of focus and urgency going into this. We’ll be fine. We’ve beaten the three teams [remaining in the CAA playoffs]. We’ve beaten them all. They’re the ones who are going to be worried about us.”
May the best team win.
