Women’s Soccer Season Preview: Terriers Open 2022 Campaign, Casey Brown’s Tenure vs. Northeastern
By Cameron Meyer
After a heartbreaking loss to Bucknell in the Patriot League Championship last year, the Boston University Women’s Soccer team will start anew in 2022, albeit in unfamiliar circumstances.
For the first time in the program’s 27-year history, the Terriers will begin their season without Nancy Feldman at the helm after she announced her retirement in April. Feldman’s legacy within the program is unquestionable, as she led the Terriers to 13 conference titles throughout her tenure.
BU Director of Athletics Drew Marrochello didn’t look far to find the next head coach. In June, Marrochello officially announced the hiring of former Terrier Casey Brown for the head coach role. As a player, Brown was a part of three of the 13 conference title wins in the program’s history, playing from 2006 to 2009. She helped win three more conference championships as Feldman’s assistant coach.
“I have nothing but immense pride and gratitude to be here,” Brown said at her formal unveiling as the new head coach. “This place is home to me.”
Going into the season, which starts today at home against Northeastern, Brown inherits a team not too different from Feldman’s team in 2021. Most of the Terriers’ core remains, including 2021 Patriot League Defender of the Year Jenna Oldham and 2021 All-Leaguers Abby McNulty, Lily Matthews, Julianna Stureman, Amy Thompson and Ashley Buck.
Oldham, despite being a defender, led the Terriers in goals (4) and assists (7) in 2021. She was named to the 2022 Patriot League Preseason All-League team along with McNulty.
The Terriers also return the services of Thompson, who was tied for third in points (9) on the team last season.
Although the Terriers retained much of their attacking firepower for the upcoming season, there lies a major hole in the back line. Last year, the defensive success was largely thanks to the center back partnership of Buck and Elle Conlin. However, Conlin, who played the most minutes within the team last season and earned All-League honors, graduated.
A big task for Brown in her debut season will be to find a suitable replacement for the now-graduated defender. The remedy could be found with junior Michelle Williams, who recently transferred from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and helped guide a back line that ranked second in the NEC with eight shutouts in 2021.
Based on talent alone, the Terriers are still one of the strongest teams in the conference in 2022, but Brown will have her work cut out to bring her team back to the dominance of the year prior. In regular season play, the Terriers were fantastic on both sides of the ball, scoring 1.67 goals per game and only allowing seven goals through nine games.
In the 2022 Patriot League preseason poll, the Terriers ranked third in the conference behind Navy and title-defenders Bucknell, and earned six of 20 first-place votes. In 2021, the Terriers didn’t receive a single first-place vote in the preseason poll and ended up as the first seed in the Patriot League tournament
Although Brown is taking over a program that saw heaps of success under a legendary coach, she has the personnel to take the figurative baton in stride and add to the Terrier dominance that defined much of Feldman’s tenure.
“This is an honor of a lifetime,” Brown said to her players at her unveiling. “This is my dream: to be leading you all and to be leading this program.”