In a much-anticipated showdown between conference rivals, the Binghamton University women’s soccer team fell short against Boston University in their first conference match of the season. But the team gained redemption in its next America East match at the University at Albany, winning the game 2-1 and improving its conference record to 1-1.
The Bearcats had their three-game win streak snapped on Sunday against the Boston Terriers, losing 3-0 in their first shutout since Sept. 6. Though it was a loss, head coach Sarah McClellan remained optimistic about the rest of the year.
“It was a good first performance against the strongest … team in the conference,” she said. “Now we’re gonna be looking for results … anyone can show up and play and have a good game against anyone else in the conference. The expectations for an end result are increased now for the rest of the conference games.”
The game got off to a rocky start for the Bearcats. Just over four minutes into the contest, Boston’s Taleen Dimirdjian scored the first goal on a corner kick, and at 16:34, the Terriers struck again, this time with a corner kick from Corie Halasz.
“The first two corner kicks that we gave away to Boston, we just were not mentally committed to understanding the urgency of those two plays and as a result we got down in the hole 2-0,” McClellan said. “It was against the flow of the game and we just did not have the urgency that we needed to understand the importance of taking care of those two plays.”
The flow didn’t get any better during the second half, which saw the Boston lead rise to 3-0 after Dimirdjian’s second goal at 52:52. The Bearcats were outshot 16-4 in the match.
McClellan attributed the wide gap in shot differential mostly to Boston’s defensive dominance, as well as to some early mistakes.
“Boston had a really tight back line,” she said. “Our attacks didn’t finish with shots, so that’s the reason we didn’t get the shot total that we would’ve liked. [There were] some team errors for those first two goals and if we redo those two plays, I think we have a much more competitive game.”
Although the squad didn’t come up with a win, Binghamton showed its strengths on the field throughout the match.
“The real battle of the game was in midfield and I thought our midfield did exceptionally well to control the tempo of the game,” McClellan said, “Which is something that we haven’t done before against Boston. So in that respect, it was a really well-played game.”
The Bearcats took those positives into Thursday’s match against Albany, and this time they were able to pull out a victory. Binghamton opened the scoring just 2:47 into the match after sophomore Dani Raske took a pass from freshman Jamie Holliday and beat the Albany goalkeeper on a breakaway. The Great Danes tied it up just 1:25 later, but in the second half, freshman Lisa Campbell scored her first collegiate goal at the 20:21 mark to seal the win for the Bearcats.
Binghamton (4-4-1) is scheduled to face Stony Brook University this coming Sunday at home, and McClellan and the rest of the team are determined to play their best.
“We know that we’re gonna have to come out sharp and play well … we always have a battle against Stony Brook, and we tend to match up well against them,” she said. “Where we came up short in the last couple games against Stony Brook was on the scoreboard, so that’s something that has to be fixed on Sunday.”