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Week of 19 September 1997 |
Vol. I, No. 4 |
Sports
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This year women's soccer one step closer to Þrst playoff appearanceGame Preview by Brian Fitzgerald The BU women's soccer team is off to a winning start this fall, registering a 3-2-1 overall record -- not bad for a program in just its third year of varsity status. True, the Terriers had more victories at this point in their first two seasons (5-1 in 1995, 6-0 in 1996), but Coach Nancy Feldman points out that their current record is not evidence that this team's talent has dropped off. Far from it. "It is an indication that we have scheduled more difficult games this year," she says, noting that BU's 1-0 overtime loss to Harvard September 12 was against the number-one ranked team in the New England region -- and 10th in the nation. "We have teams such as Southern Methodist, James Madison, and Dartmouth on our schedule because they will prepare us for the conference games in the second half of the season," she says. "They're nationally ranked teams with years of NCAA experience." And now that BU soccer has established itself as a legitimate program, she insists that a berth in the NCAA tournament is a reachable goal, especially since the conference's champion was recently awarded an automatic bid. "We made some noise in the conference last year," she says of the team's fifth-place finish -- BU narrowly missed America East's four-team postseason tournament. At present the Terriers are in fourth place in the 10- team America East conference. However, numbers can be deceptive: no America East teams have played one another yet. The standings, based on overall records, are basically meaningless. BU's regional ranking, also based on nonconference games, is number 10. Granted, a BU win over Harvard would have resulted in a higher ranking. "It was a tough loss because anything can happen when a number one team plays against number 10," Feldman says. Indeed, in the second overtime, midfielder Molly Nolan (CGS'01) had a breakaway and blasted a shot high above goalkeeper Jennifer Burney. But Burney jumped and made an incredible save. Several minutes later Crimson forward Beth Zotter took a rebound off the post and booted it into the Terriers' net. Still, Feldman knows that the really crucial games are in the second half of the season. "Before we can be number one in the region we have to be number one in the conference," she says. BU's America East games begin on September 27 in a home game against New Hampshire, which makes the Terriers' game against Rhode Island an important momentum builder. Rhode Island, winless both in the Atlantic 10 conference (0-3-0) and overall (0-5-0), defeated the Terriers, 1-0, in BU's inaugural season. "But last year our goal was to defeat every team that beat us in '95," she says. Their mission was accomplished with a 2-1 victory. Now, on to the next crusade: a trip to the NCAA tournament. |
Athletes of the Week
Meghan Lynch And Beth Weisman
The BU women's soccer Terriers have two great goaltenders, but which one should the coach start in net? A team could certainly have worse problems.
Last year BU enjoyed success employing a rotating system, using the freshman combination of Meghan Lynch (SED'00) (top) and Beth Weisman (CAS'00). Lynch finished with a 0.64 goals against average, which was tops in the conference. Weisman, at 0.84, wasn't far behind.
Feldman had been using the platoon system again this season, but started Lynch in consecutive games after her 15 saves in BU's losing effort against Harvard on September 12 -- she made three times as many saves as her Crimson counterpart in the 1-0 heartbreaker. Two days later the Andover, Mass. native's 10 saves helped BU tie Princeton, 1-1.
Weisman, from Potomac, Md., had three saves against Providence September 10. BU's 1-0 victory over the Friars extended the scoreless streak of BU's opponents to 211 minutes and gave BU back-to-back shutouts. Last year the Lynch-Weisman combination blanked opponents eight times.
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