Women's Soccer Loses At Harvard, 3-1
October 18, 2000 | Women's Soccer
The Terrier women's soccer team closed out the non-conference portion of its 2000 season on Oct. 18 on a down note as it dropped a 3-1 decision to host Harvard.
The Terriers, who have now lost two straight matches, are 9-6-0 with four games left on their schedule, and all four are against America East rivals. They will be at Hartford on Friday (October 20th) and at Vermont on Sunday (October 22nd) before they return home to host Delaware (October 27th) and Towson (October 29th) to close out the regular season.
In the Oct. 18 match at Harvard, the Terriers spotted the Crimson a 1-0 lead just 1:37 into the match when Orly Ripmaster lofted a shot into the far corner of the net past B.U.'s leaping goalkeeper Danielle Demers (Portland, ME). Harvard, which posted its seventh straight win and fourth consecutive game with at least three goals, increased its lead over the Terriers to 2-0 at the 27:36 mark when Meredith Stewart drilled a shot to the upper left corner of the goal.
Terrier senior Deidre Enos (Milton), who had been held without a goal for the past two games, ended her scoring drought at 50:30 when her shot beat Harvard goalkeeper Cheryl Gunther to her right side. For Enos, it was her team-leading 12th goal of the season. Sophomore Allison Merkle (Baltimore, MD) got the assist.
The Terriers nearly tied the game at the 53rd minute when freshman Katie Smurthwaite (West Hartford, CT) took a hard shot that ricocheted off the left post just out of the reach of Gunther.
Harvard had its chances in the second half as well and finally collected in the 73rd minute when Westfall's shot beat Demers to account for the final margin.
"I thought we played OK," said Terrier head coach Nancy Feldman. "The problem was we had a couple of lapses at back, and they took advantage of the mistakes by scoring goals.
"They are a very explosive team," continued the coach. "They keep coming at you and you can't make mistakes.
"I thought we were pretty even. The difference was we made mistakes at back and they didn't."
The coach then turned her attention to the final four games of the year.
"We are 5-0 in the league, and we need just one more win to make the tournament, and that's our goal," Feldman said. "It would be nice if that win came on Friday night at Hartford. If we beat them, then we could be talking about a potential number one seed.
"Today's game is behind us," she concluded. "I know that our players will put it behind them and play hard this weekend. Our players have pride in this program, and their goal is to make the tournament and then see what happens."
Boston University 0 1 - 1 Harvard University 2 1 - 3
H-Orly Ripmaster (unassisted), 1:37 H-Meredith Stewart (Katie Westfall), 27:36 B.U.-Deidre Enos (Allison Merkle), 50:30 H-Westfall (Lauren Cozzolino, Ashley Mattison), 72:21
Shots: Boston University, 19; Harvard, 17
Saves: Danielle Demers (B.U.), 5; Cheryl Gunther (H), 9
Corner Kicks: B.U., 4; Harvard, 6
