There are some seasons when things just don’t go as expected. An injury here, bad officiating there, and suddenly a few winnable games have slipped away and a team finds themselves out of any post-season race. Just pass it off as bad luck. It happens.
Yes, there is rotten luck, and then there is the season Ed Matz is having. The women’s soccer coach is setting his career-high in bad luck this season.
“At this point we have to kind of laugh about,” Matz said. “In a strange way, it is kind of funny.”
In 1999, Matz became the women’s soccer head coach, just four years into the program’s existence. Before Matz, the head coach was Julia Claudio. In the first three years of the program, Claudio put together a measly 11-38-7 record.
In that same three-year period, Matz became the head coach for the men’s team and went 24-27.
Matz coached for both teams until 2004 when he decided to focus on the women’s team and Brian Anscough took over the men’s coaching duties.
In his career, Matz has put together a 202-181-40 record. He is solidly above .500 with a .524 winning percentage, but this season is unlike any other he has coached.
At 2-6-1 and with only Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) games left, this season will go down as one of the worst in Matz’s career. And he isn’t doing anything wrong.
The 2007 squad is riddled with injuries, including a season-ending injury to junior midfielder Jenna Lucchesi Sunday and two injuries that have kept preseason All-CAA pick Sofia Palmquist on the bench for most of the season. Palmquist started the season with a hamstring injury and is currently sidelined with torn ligaments in her ankle.
Senior defender Hannah Schindler and junior forward Maria Picard have also missed time with injuries. Junior defender Laura Neuburger is redshirting the 2007 season and will return to the field for the 2008 season. Sophomore back-up goalie Sarah Fylak is also out for the season with a stress fracture in her back.
There are also three freshmen who were unable to play this season and have taken a medical redshirt. Logan Kirkpatrick is out with compartment syndrome, Ali Skonieczny recently had surgery on her hip and Brianna Brennan has a torn ACL.
“This is beyond normal injuries,” Matz said. “This is the most chronic, cumulative, on-going series of injuries I have ever seen. Injuries are part of the game, but this is crazy.”
The Huskies’ offense has only scored three goals all season and without Lucchesi and Palmquist, that number probably won’t get much higher. Last year, the front line scored 27 goals, but this year the Huskies have been shut out six times.
Sophomore forward Liza Rebello is healthy, but that’s the only positive. Rebello led the team last season with six goals on her way to a CAA All-Rookie team selection, but this season she has yet to score her first point.
When Matz attempts to move some position players around to create more offense, he leaves holes in the defense and the Huskies give up more goals. They’ve given up 13 so far this season. Junior Brenna Matthews and senior Laura Johnson were a defensive wall last season when the Huskies only allowed 22 goals, but the need to move them up to midfield has greatly increased the number of shots taken by senior keeper Annie Petrofsky.
Last season Petrofsky set the Northeastern record for shutouts with seven perfect games in the net. This year, she has a 1.37 goals against average despite making 52 saves already this season.
The ultimate slap in the face came Sept. 15 at New Hampshire in the game I dub “The Caitlin Whelan Bowl.” After two seasons as a starter with Northeastern, Whelan transferred to UNH after last season for academic reasons. The Huskies had a 1-0 lead after a goal from Matthews when star Whelan, fresh off her America East Rookie of the Week honor, scored for the Wildcats and sent the Huskies home with a 1-1 tie.
Wins are hard to come by this season. I imagine that one is going to sting for a while.
There are still nine games left this season but in the stacked CAA the Huskies are going to be hardpressed to pull out many wins. There are six CAA teams currently ranked by Soccer Buzz and not a single team can be taken lightly.
The Huskies have handled this season with grace and perseverance. And for handling such an awful season without letting it affect them, I hope they get a little soccer karma and win the CAA Championship next season.
– Erika Carrubba can be reached at
