After a weather delay pushed back game time an extra 24 hours, a second half push from Boston College on Monday left the Massachusetts women’s soccer team scrambling for answers. The Eagles (2-0-0) scored two goals early in the latter half, and UMass (0-2-0) failed to match the offensive intensity, ultimately falling 3-1.
“I feel like we could have performed better and could have possessed a lot better, especially in the first half,” head coach Jason Dowiak said. “It took us a little while to get into the game and then really just didn’t reward ourselves when we had really good chances.”
With a ball played behind the Eagles’ backline, Karina Groff was able to get a breakaway, but Boston College goalkeeper Wiebke Willebrandt came up with the save. Willebrandt finished with four saves today, only allowing one goal in.
Boston College’s first goal was an own goal that was deflected off a UMass player in the 73rd minute. Soon after, Eagle’s Ella Richards got the ball past Bella Mendoza, giving Boston College a two-goal lead.
In the 83rd minute, Lauren Smida took a shot that found the top right of the net and left UMass searching for one more to tie the game. Despite the strong offensive push from the Minutewomen, Richards found the back of the net again in the 87th minute solidifying the win for BC. Coming in off the bench and only having played 27 minutes, Richards made her presence known and provided UMass’ defense with a challenge, recording two goals and three totals shots for the game.
“Similar to the Penn State game, the goals we gave up were our own doing and putting the ball into bad situations that allowed BC to be really dangerous, and they took advantage of them,” Dowiak said. “Defensively as a group it was really good at times, but we didn’t defend with possession and that is something we talked about a lot.”
There were multiple line changes on defense for the Minutewomen. Sarah Defreitas, Ava Jouvenel, Julianna Ryan, and Fiona Kane started the game, with Serena Ahmed and Macy Graves coming in off the bench.
Leading up to the game, Dowiak worked with his team on organization and saw improvements. Where the biggest struggle fell was not getting enough pressure on the ball, allowing BC to create more opportunities.
“As we got into the second half, we really got into a good rhythm of knocking the ball and getting it behind them and creating some really really good chances,” Dowiak said. “We just want to reward ourselves more and keep the ball for longer.”
The Minutewomen have many strengths on offense this season with freshman Chandler Pedolzky, who scored in the first game, Groff, and Ella Curry who all took shots on net today. Lauren Bonavita and Smida led, both recording five shots. As the team continues to learn to play together, they will be able to convert and create more opportunities offensively.
UMass will face UMass Lowell in its first game on Rudd field of the season at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Sophie Weller can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SophieeWellerr
