The Massachusetts women’s soccer team traveled to take on Boston University on Sunday. The Terriers (1-2-1) drew first blood, but UMass (2-2) finished the first half with an equalizer and opened the second with the winning goal.
BU was awarded the first corner kick of the day and the cross found the head of Margret Berry, going into the net. The Terriers continued to play hard, pressing heavily on the Minutewomen defense and playing a high line. UMass struggled to get the ball past midfield for a stretch of time.
“We had a good game plan in how we felt we could break what we expected was going to be a lot of pressure,” head coach Jason Dowiak said. “Our center backs, Jules and Fi and Ava played the full 90. They were excellent. They dealt with everything thrown at them.”
In the 33rd minute Emily McCormack sent a cross landing on the foot of Bella Recinos who took a one touch shot that sailed past the hands of Terriers goalkeeper Gretchen Bennet.
The Minutewomen rode their momentum into the second half with a quick goal in the 46th minute. Freshman Chandler Pedolzky, who has two goals and two assists on the season, fed a through ball to Lauren Smida who took the shot, and scored the second goal for UMass.
“The two goals that we scored I think were two of the nicest build-ups into a finish that I’ve seen from our group in my time at UMass,” Dowiak said. “We’ve worked a lot on the relationship between our two center forwards and our attacking mid and our wing backs, and they are starting to really acknowledge each other and who’s making movements to check to the ball.”
Despite the pressure from the Terriers, the Minutewomen were still able to create chances and get shots on goal. UMass finished the game with four shots on goal, while BU had nine. Megan Olszewski played the full 90 minutes in goal, saving seven shots in the second half alone.
“I feel like we have been ahead of the curve for us early in the season with the quality of movement,” Dowiak said. “We were just able to be cleaner in keeping it longer and finding those target players when they do check down.”
The Minutewomen have struggled this season with creating chances and getting numbers forward, but this game saw increased opportunities offensively.
“I would like to keep possession longer,” Dowiak said. “I want to have longer stretches and move the ball more from side to side so that we can create bigger opportunities, more opportunities to play between the lines of our opponent.”
UMass will return to Rudd Field on Thursday at 4 p.m. against Bryant.
Sophie Weller can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SophieeWellerr
