By: Jonathan Raymond, News Staff
The women’s soccer team opened up its season at Parsons Field Aug. 28 against Longwood sporting a roster with just one senior to its credit.
Despite that, the Huskies went 12-4-3 and managed a 7-1-3 record in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) en route to a regular season title in the conference.
Carrying that load all year, and ushering in a set of underclassmen that went 20 players deep as the lone elder statesman was captain and forward Liza Rebello.
Rebello played four full seasons for the Huskies from 2006-09, amassing 25 career goals and eight assists for a team that, during her tenure, became a force in the CAA. The effort in her four years also made her the team’s second all-time leading scorer with 56 points.
“Just being part of the team was awesome,” she said. “Especially when we won the championship when I was a junior.”
That team, for which Rebello started 22 of 23 games and finished second on the team in scoring with a seven-goal, four-assist, 18-point line, was the first at Northeastern to win the CAA tournament championship. The title sent them to the NCAA tournament, where they topped Harvard in the first round, winning 4-2 on penalty kicks.
In the second round NU lost to Boston College, but the conference championship, paired with the NCAA tournament experience, counted as the highlight of Rebello’s time with the Huskies, she said.
The New Bedford native redshirted the 2005 season before beginning as a freshman in 2006. She played in each of Northeastern’s 19 games that season, and managed to net six goals for a squad that flashed its potential with a 9-6-4 season that included a 5-3-3 run in the CAA, the team’s second in the conference and first showing above .500.
As a freshman that year, Rebello was named to the All-CAA rookie team. In her next season, she led the team in goals with four an added an assist for nine total points. The team struggled that season before it burst onto the scene the next year.
Those growing pains, and the routine of persevering as a team together, are the kinds of things Rebello said she would miss as she moves on past her Northeastern career.
“I guess I’ll just miss seeing the people every day, it’ll be different,” she said.
While the success of 2008-09 stood out for Rebello, this season, which included her final game and a strong regular season that gave Northeastern its first CAA regular season title, was something she considered a big accomplishment as well.
For Rebello, it was her most productive season statistically, with eight goals and three assists for a career-high 19 points. She also made the CAA All-Tournament team for the first time.
Winning the final game this year against Hofstra to clinch the regular season title, as the lone honoree on Senior Day, stood out as well for Rebello.
“It was my senior game, and we won that game and finished first in the conference, so that was pretty cool,” she said.
With her soccer career now behind her and graduation closing in, the nursing major said she is hoping to find a job at one of the medical centers in Boston after having done three co-ops while in school, with Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. Once she’s working full-time and out of school, she said she’ll look back fondly on her time as a Husky.
“It’s really hard to get a job in Boston right now, so I’m just hoping for the best,” she said. “I’m definitely going to miss it because it was a huge part of my life and I’m really happy with how it all turned out.”
