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HAMILTON, N.Y. - Defense and goaltending down the stretch preserved the Boston University women's soccer team's early lead and made the Terriers back-to-back Patriot League Champions, defeating Colgate 2-1 on Sunday afternoon.

With the win, Boston U. earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Terriers will learn their opponent on the NCAA selection show on Monday at 4:30 p.m. Fans can watch at http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule.

Alyssa Parisi was a wall in goal through the final 20 minutes of the game, totaling seven saves and allowing only a penalty kick past her. The defense was there to help her out as well, making two team saves to stop the Raiders aggressive attack at the end of the match.

The Terriers came out strong, attacking the net early and often. Jenna Fisher set up Katherine Lim for a nice try on net in the seventh minute but Lim's shot was too strong and went high of the net.

Fisher wasn't ready to call it quits in her offensive zone, however, and intercepted the goal kick after Lim's shot, brought it up the right side and passed to Ana Cuffia who was wide open in front of the net to send it home and give the Terriers a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute.

Colgate made a couple of attempts midway through the first period, but couldn't connect on crosses due to an unrelenting Terrier defense.

The game was played mostly in the midfield for the final 10 minutes of the first half and the Terriers began the second period with the 1-0 advantage.

BU did not relent and came out of halftime with dangerous tries at the net. Christina Wakefield came closest to scoring in the 54th minute when Alivya Wimmer served a free kick into the six-yard box, which Wakefield sent to the crossbar and looked like it couldn't be stopped but the Colgate goalie managed to get a hand on it and punch it over the net.

In the 65th minute, Clare Pleuler scored her second game-winning goal of the tournament when she redirected a pass by Jenna Fisher from the right side and sent it far post to give the Terriers a 2-0 advantage.

The Raiders turned up their offensive efforts in the final 15 minutes of the game and, after not getting a single shot off for the first 25 minutes of the half, put nine shots on net to test Parisi.

Only one of those shots got past the senior goalkeeper, who narrowly missed stopping a penalty kick, putting an end to the shutout.

In the 78th minute, Dara DeMatteo got called for a foul inside the box trying to defend service off a Colgate free kick and the Raiders were awarded a penalty kick. Colgate's Caroline Brawner shot one to the left post and Parisi dove to stop it but it slipped under her hand and cut the lead to one goal.

The Terriers fought off the Raiders for the final 12 minutes and came away with their second Patriot League Championship in two years. Kai Miller was named tournament MVP and was joined on the All-Tournament squad by Cuffia, Parisi and Pleuler.

The BU senior class has won every conference championship it was eligible for, missing out on the 2012 America East postseason to make the switch to the Patriot League.