Women’s Soccer: Michigan Overpowers Terriers at Nickerson
By James Garrison
After collecting their first two victories of the season last week against Providence College and UMass Lowell, the Boston University Women’s Soccer Team (2-2-0) (0-0 PL) sought to continue their early season win-streak against the No. 9 ranked University of Michigan Wolverines (2-1). The Terriers’ biggest test of the season did not go as planned, as they fell 6-2 to the Wolverines.
Despite the discouraging end result, the Terriers jumped out to an early lead off an acrobatic strike from sophomore forward Morgan Fagan from inside the box that beat Wolverines’ goalkeeper Izzy Nino.
Fagan’s first goal of the year got the Terriers on the board just 92 seconds into the match. That early lead would be short-lived though, as the Wolverines were able to equalize a mere 42 seconds after Fagan’s tally.
Wolverines’ senior forward Danielle Wolfe won a race against BU’s senior defender Ashley Buck — evading her and finishing her strike past Terriers’ goalkeeper Gretchen Bennett, which quickly swung momentum in favor of Michigan.
“We started the game pretty well obviously,” said the Terriers’ Head Coach Casey Brown postgame. “We knew this was a very good soccer team and we were trying to just defend them with good, cohesive organization.”
Michigan’s momentum would continue to build until it materialized into a full takeover of the pitch offensively. Around nine minutes after Wolfe’s equalizer, Wolverines midfielder Kacey Lawrence put Michigan ahead on the scoreboard. Only nine more minutes would pass until the Wolverines found the scoresheet once again, this time off the foot of senior forward Lily Farkas.
Searching for answers on the backend following defensive miscues that led to Michigan’s second and third goals, Coach Brown elected to make some substitutions just midway through the first half.
“Obviously we didn’t have enough of the ball,” Brown said. “You have to do a lot of defending and there’s a cumulative effect to that…[We were] proud to put the ball in the back of the net but obviously we have to be better defensively.”
Michigan tallied a fourth goal in the first half, followed by a fifth and sixth strike in the second — two of which came from the boot of Sammi Woods for her second and third goals of the season.
The Terriers would add a late goal to cut the Wolverines’ lead to 6-2 with 10:55 remaining, with Abigail McNulty picking up her second goal of the season at the end of the blowout contest.
Despite the lopsided score, Brown said that she and the rest of the Terriers squad will put more of an emphasis on the positives and learning experiences that come when taking on a Power Five squad.
“[Michigan is] a very good team — they’re like a top-ten team,” she said. “We were tested today and they are very good. There are things we can take from being tested in that way and playing against some of the best teams in the country.”
As students begin to return to campus after a long summer, the beat will go on for Brown’s squad as they are set to head down to New Haven to take on Yale Thursday night in search of a rebound effort.
“We’re doing things really well, the team knows that,” Brown said. “We trust our process and we know we’re doing really good things…We’re trusting what we’re doing and staying on course.”