Women's Soccer Returns to Action Sunday at Michigan State

Sunday, August 19

East Lansing, MI

1 PM

Boston University

Michigan State

Photo by: UM Photography,D.Marshke

Women's Soccer Returns to Action Sunday at Michigan State

August 17, 2018 | Women's Soccer

Live Stats

BOSTON - Staying in the Michigan for opening weekend, the Boston University women's soccer team will head up the road from Ann Arbor to East Lansing for a tilt with Michigan State on Sunday, Aug. 19 at 1 p.m.

Women's Soccer (0-1) at Michigan State (1-0)
Date & Time	Sunday, Aug. 19 \| 1 p.m.
Venue	DeMartin Stadium \| East Lansing, Mich.
Live Stats	msuspartans.com
Twitter	@BUGameDay \| @TerrierWSOC

First Impressions

The Terriers fell in the season opener, 3-1, to Michigan Thursday night.
Anna Heilferty delivered the lone score for the Terriers in the 87th minute.
23 of 30 players on the active roster saw playing time.

Preseason Predictions

BU landed a league-high four student-athletes on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team in Julianna Chen, McKenna Doyle, Anna Heilferty and Dorrie Varley-Barrett.
Heilferty headlined the quartet as she was named the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, becoming the first sophomore to earn the honor since Army's Kim An in 2011.
As a team, the Terriers were predicted to finish second overall among Patriot League foes, and earned six first-place votes.

Leading The Way

Libby Closson, Pietra Sweeney and Dorrie Varley-Barrett will serve as tri-captains this season.
Closson has started every game on the backline for the past two seasons and helped guide the defense to 10 shutouts and was named to the Patriot League All-Tournament Team.
Sweeney has also been a key figure on the defense for the past three seasons and started in 20 of 21 matches in 2017.
A two-time All-Patriot League selection, Varley-Barrett has started in 57 of 63 games played and was named to the All-Patriot League Second Team in 2017.

Return of The Attack

The Terriers return their top two point scorers in McKenna Doyle and Anna Heilferty.
Heilferty, the reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Year, tied for the team lead in points (13) and goals (5) last season.
Doyle ranked fourth in goals (3) and tied for fourth in points (8).

The Last Line

BU boasted one of the top defenses in the league, posting nine shutouts, including seven against Patriot League opponents.
The Terriers limited opponents to just .86 goals per game and posted a .44 goals against average in conference play.
Amanda Fay led the league with a .560 goals against average, allowing just eight goals over 15 games in net.

At the Helm

Head coach Nancy Feldman is in her 24th season in guiding the Terriers and her 31st season as a head women's soccer coach at the collegiate level.
Feldman has posted a 297-144-44 (.659) mark during her tenure at BU and owns a 389-162-53 (.689) career record.
In NCAA history, she ranks No. 19 all-time in career wins.
Under Feldman's watch, the Terriers have won 12 conference regular season and postseason titles and have made 13 NCAA appearances.

Red, White and Blue

Anna Heilferty earned a spot on the U.S. U-18 National Team in February and competed at the U-19 La Manga 12 Nations Tournament before taking the pitch for a pair of games against Switzerland's U-19 team in March.
For both tours, Heilferty was the lone player from a non-power five conference to represent the U-18 WNT.

Scouting the Spartans

Michigan State opened the season with a 2-0 home win over Utah State on Friday night with Sadie Misiewicz scoring both goals in the first half and Reilley Ott needing just one save for the shutout.
The Spartans are coming off a 6-11-1 campaign that included a 2-8-1 mark in Big Ten action.
Lexi Warner is the top returning scorer as she ranked second on the team in both points (13) and goals (5) last year.
On defense, Ott led the conference last season with 110 saves and 6.10 saves per game.
Tom Saxton enters his 28th season as head coach and currently boasts an all--time record of 261-222-51 (.536).

The Series