Women’s Soccer: BU Defeats St. John’s to Advance

It took overtime, but the Boston University Terriers will be advancing in the NCAA tournament.

BU defeated the St. John’s Red Storm 2-1 to advance in the NCAA women’s soccer tournament on Saturday night, stunning the team from Queens with an overtime goal.

Clare Pleuler scored her fourth game winning goal of the season to led BU to the second round of the tournament for the fifth time in program history. Alexandra Cooper scored a goal late in regulation to force the overtime. Julianna Chen had the assist on the goal from Pleuler.

The goal from Cooper, who also played well in the Patriot League championship game, came in the 78th minute of the game. Before that, the Red Storm led since the 21st minute of the game. Alyssa Parisi was able to shut them down for the remainder of the contest with three saves.

The Terriers outshot the Red Storm 18-16 overall despite St. John’s dominating most of the first half. BU made the second half adjustment but it took until late in the second half for Cooper’s goal to get the Terriers on the scoreboard. BU also stopped St. John’s on both of its free kick attempts.

BU will face the Penn State Nittany Lions in the second round. The Terriers travel to College Park on Friday night at 6:30pm. BU, with this recent victory, now lead all-time in post season wins for a Patriot League team with two wins since joining the conference just three years ago.