By Matthew MacCormack, news correspondent
With a 2-0 drubbing of the Hofstra University Pride in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament championship, the Northeastern soccer team earned its second consecutive CAA title and second straight trip to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament.
With the way the team has played this year, there is plenty of reason for pride. Although the Huskies won the CAA tournament last year, they haven’t captured the CAA regular season title since 2009. This year, the women took care of business against two conference rivals in the CAA semi-finals and finals to clinch their automatic bid to the NCAAs. With home-field advantage and extra rest from a quarter-final bye, the Huskies cruised to easy victories over the weekend.
“All season, this team has been on this incredible mission,” Leone said. “There’s been this incredible focus to try to do all we can to get back to this point. I’m so proud, I’m so happy for them.”
It all began on Friday evening when the Huskies took the field againstthe College ofWilliam & Mary. The semi-final matchup pitted the fourth-seeded Tribe against top-seeded Northeastern. Earlier in the season, NU captured a nail-biting 1-0 victory against William & Mary. Although the Huskies conquered the Tribe back in September, few expected Northeastern to be so dominant on Friday.
It was the Tribe who had the game’s first real opportunity. 17 minutes in, senior keeper Paige Burnett came to the rescue with a save after a headed effort from William & Mary junior forward Katie Johnston. From there, the Huskies turned the tide.
After 34 minutes of offensive pressure, the women finally got their chance when freshman midfielder Hannah Lopiccolo lined up for the Huskies’ seventh corner of the half. Lopiccolo’s corner bounced around in the box, eventually finding the toe of sophomore midfielder Carina Deandreis, who passed the ball to senior center back Bianca Calderone. The captain took care of the rest, thundering the loose ball into the back of the net. The Huskies led 1-0 on the Calderone score.
Ten minutes later, freshman forward Kayla Cappuzzo tickled the twine again for NU, curving the shot into the bottom left corner to double the score.
In the second frame, NU held nothing back. With 27 minutes left, junior striker Shayna Blackwood took advantage of a Tribe defensive error to give the Huskies a 3-0 advantage. Blackwood pounced on a loose ball and chipped the William & Mary keeper, giving the junior her fourth straight game with a goal.
Sophomore outside back Mackenzie Dowd put the icing on the cake for NU six minutes later. Dowd poked in a Lopiccolo cross for her team-leading sixth goal of the season. Northeastern would ride the 4-0 scoreline home.
After the game, no one in the Northeastern camp seemed surprised about the result.
“I was anxious at first, but I knew that if we played the way we’ve been playing, we’d get good results,” Lopiccolo, who was playing in her first CAA tournament, said.
According to Leone, the team’s spectacular effort could be partially attributed to the spoils given to the tournament’s top seed. With extra rest and the ease of playing at home, Leone knew the team would gel.
“To be able to sleep in your own bed and play on your own field in front of your own fans is amazing,” she said. “We were just having a good time.”
Nonetheless, despite earning such a commanding victory on Friday, winning the semifinals was likely not going to be enough to put the Huskies through to the NCAA field of 64. On the horizon for Sunday’s conference final was a matchup with Hofstra, the only team to beat the Huskies in conference play this year. With a 1-0 defeat of the Huskies in mid-October, the Pride ruined NU’s bid at a perfect conference season.
The matchup everyone was focused on heading into the Sunday battle was the potent Hofstra front line against the stubborn Northeastern defense. Coming into the game, the NU back line was tasked with shutting down Hofstra forwards senior Sam Scolarici and junior Leah Galton, the nation’s second highest scoring duo. Galton, who has won consecutive CAA Player of the Year awards, would have to be controlled for NU to stand any chance at revenge.
Luckily for the Huskies, the experienced Northeastern backline stepped up.
Senior center backs Awnalisa Walker and CAA Defensive Player of the Year Calderone contained the once-lethal Hofstra attackers, and Burnett had no trouble making the three saves necessary for the shutout. Sophomore outside backs Dowd and Skylar LeBlanc were nothing short of spectacular, as well.
From start to finish, the Huskies had the game under control. It was a very physical contest from the outset, with senior striker Lahaina Zoller’s first-minute yellow card setting the tone for the rest of the match. However, the NU players were able to keep their composure, which drew praise from their coach.
“It’s hard to do that, when it’s just a physical battle, but they did,” Leone said. “It was really just a sign of great maturity and experience.”
The Huskies proved fit for the physical gameplay, as they captured the game winner just 11 minutes in. Redshirt sophomore midfielder and set-piece extraordinaire Breeana Koemans sent in a corner, which found the head of Dowd, who buried the back-post game-winner with ease.
With her second goal of the weekend, Dowd proved her worth to Northeastern. At game’s end, the sophomore would be named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
NU would continue its form for the rest of the championship. Despite a few Hofstra chances early in the second half, the game never looked out of the Huskies’ reach. With 20 minutes remaining, the women put the game to rest as Lopiccolo took advantage of a defensive mishap by the Pride. After Zoller and freshman forward Carly Wilhelm provided pressure, Lopiccolo cleaned up a poorly-cleared cross to give NU the 2-0 lead it carried to game’s end.
With their 14th win of the year, the Huskies set a single-season program record and became the first team since William & Mary won consecutive titles in 2000-2001. NU is also undefeated in CAA championship games, recording wins in all three attempts.
For Leone, it was difficult to explain how confident and prepared the team looked on Sunday.
“There was just a real great feeling, like an aura, that you can’t really describe, but that you know when you see,” she said.
To Dowd, the team took care of business as usual.
“We knew that we wanted to be CAA champions,” she said. “So as soon as we got that first goal, we just carried that momentum right on through the rest of the game.”
As for the individual award of Most Outstanding Player, the humble outside back chocked it up to a team effort.
“Obviously it’s always amazing to be recognized for your own hard work,” Dowd said. “[But] I think the individual award is a team accomplishment, too. I’m part of an incredible back line [that’s] supporting me.”
With 16 shutouts and a 0.273 goals against average, good enough for second in the nation behind the University of California, Los Angeles, the defense has clearly been tough.
But no matter how well the team has played, all that matters now is how the Huskies can perform in their next game. The women drew Boston University (BU) as their first opponent in the next round, with both Beantown teams entering the tournament unseeded. Northeastern vanquished the Terriers 1-0 in mid-September thanks to an 85th minute Calderone goal, but that doesn’t guarantee a Husky victory this time. The teams tote matching 14-4-3 records, and BU captured the Patriot League tournament title with a 2-1 win at Colgate University on Sunday.
The two teams will square off at 2 p.m. on Saturday at BU’s Nickerson Field. To Leone, the early season game only adds to the match’s intensity.
“It’s a great matchup, it’s a very even matchup,” she said. “We know them, and they know us.”
The Huskies’ attack will have to be creative against a defense that has allowed only 14 goals in 21 games. Additionally, the backline should have its hands full with BU leading scorer junior forward Jenna Fisher (seven goals) and the rest of the BU attack.
“I think that, right now, we can beat anyone in the nation,” Dowd said. “As long as we play like we did [last weekend], no one can compete with us”
Should the Huskies be victorious, the winner of University of South Alabama and one-seeded Florida State University will be waiting in the wings. With the lessons learned from last season’s first round exit, it seems the Huskies have what it takes to go one step further and march through the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve been here, we’ve been through it, we know what it’s about,” Leone said. “And now we want to go further.”
Photo by Brian Bae
