Terriers Will Face Bucknell in Last Road Match of Regular Season

By: Akshai Wadhwani        October 20, 2017

BOSTON, MA — With two fixtures remaining in its regular season schedule, the Boston University women’s soccer team will head to Pennsylvania on Saturday for an afternoon clash with Bucknell. The match will be the Terriers’ last on the road before the playoffs.  In their season finale, they will host Colgate at Nickerson Field.

The matchup looks daunting on paper. The Bison stand second in the Patriot League table with a 6-1 conference record. They have outscored opponents 18-4 in league play, with an average of more than 13 shots per game.

Their senior forward, Kendall Ham, leads the Patriot League with six goals in conference play, and is tied for the conference lead in shots with 24. Another standout player for the Bison is goalkeeper Dani Kaufman, who has 86 saves to her name this season and is averaging four per match in league play.

Luckily for the Terriers, Bucknell currently appears to be slipping in form. Among their last four matches, the Bison lost their nonconference finale to Princeton, 4-0, had their perfect record in the Patriot League and six-match shutout streak broken with a 3-2 defeat at Colgate, and conceded goals in consecutive matches for the first time in over a month in a narrow 2-1 loss to Lehigh.

BU (8-6-3) is currently 5-1-1 in conference play. If the Terriers beat the Bison and Colgate loses to Navy later in the day, the Terriers will overtake Colgate for third place in the league. Oppositely, if the Terriers lose to Bucknell, they put themselves at risk of dropping into fifth or sixth place in the Patriot League.

Lehigh, currently chasing the Terriers in fifth, could win both its remaining matches and therefore move to 5-2-2; a loss against Bucknell, followed by another loss to Colgate next week, would leave the Terriers at 5-3-1, meaning Lehigh would overtake BU for the fourth seed. However, if the Terriers were to tie Colgate in that same scenario, they would draw even with Lehigh at 5-2-2; in that instance, the Terriers and the Mountain Hawks would have to go through a slew of tie-breaker scenarios to determine seeding.

No matter the scenario, The Terriers’ last two fixtures of the regular season will be nothing short of intriguing. Kickoff against Bucknell is set for 2 p.m. in Lewiston, Penn.