Petruccelli, Clinton Lead Women's Soccer Past Dartmouth
October 10, 2001 | Women's Soccer
Senior midfielder Teresa Petruccelli (Flushing, NY) scored one goal and assisted on another, while sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Clinton (Valley Stream, NY) turned aside six shots to lead the Terrier women's soccer team to a 2-0 win over Dartmouth at Nickerson Field on Wednesday night (October 10th).
It was the third straight win for the Terriers, who are 7-4-1 overall, while Dartmouth slipped to 3-3-1 overall.
"During the pre-season, the team put up a list of its 10 goals for the year," Terrier head coach Nancy Feldman said after the game. "The only team mentioned on that list was Dartmouth. This year's team wanted to beat Dartmouth."
One of the reasons was the Big Green had beaten the Terriers five straight times. In fact, in the six-game series history, the Terriers' only win came in the series opener on October 29, 1997 when B.U. blanked Dartmouth, 1-0.
Last year, the two teams met twice, and Dartmouth won both matches. First, they shut out the Terriers, 3-0, on September 20th. Then, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Big Green eliminated the Terriers, 4-1.
"Over the last several years, each team has improved over the previous season," said Feldman. "The 1998 team advanced to the America East semifinals. In 1999, they played in the conference title game. Last year, they won the conference regular-season and post-season tournaments and advanced to the NCAA's.
"In our meeting yesterday (October 9th), I told the team that their legacy should be a non-conference win against a good team," said Feldman. "And, they did that tonight.
"We haven't beaten an Ivy League team since 1999 when we beat Yale," continued the coach. "Tonight was a big win over a good program."
Petruccelli scored the only goal the Terriers would need just 1:48 into the match. She took a crossing pass in the box from sophomore Katie Smurthwaite (West Hartford, CT). Dartmouth goalkeeper Julia Shields tried to catch the ball but it bounced off her, and Petruccelli was there to boot home her first goal of the season.
"After that goal, we had a good thing going," said Feldman. "We were playing very well. Then, Dartmouth made some adjustments that caused us some problems.
"As a result, they owned the last 15 minutes of the first half," continued the coach.
"Then, we played well at the beginning of the second half." What resulted was the Terriers' insurance goal that was scored by sophomore Rebecca Beyer (Shawnee, KS). She headed in the ball off a Petruccelli corner kick at 64:56.
"That's the second goal we have scored off a corner in the past two games," said Feldman. "We had gone all season without scoring off a corner, and now we have scored one in the last two games."
After the Terriers improved their lead to 2-0, they began to play more defensively.
Clinton, who posted her fourth shutout of the season and second in the last three games, responded with six saves.
"I think we have turned the corner," said Feldman. "We still have things to work on, but the players are finally putting into play what we have been trying to teach them this season."
