Courtesy Boston University Athletic Communications
PROVO, UTAH -- Sophomore goalkeeper Janie
Reilly played an impressive game with six stops in net, however the Boston
University women's soccer team came up short on Thursday evening when it fell,
2-0, to defending national champion USC in the NCAA tournament at BYU's South
Field. BU completes its season with a 15-6-1 record after making its
fourth-straight trip to the postseason tourney and seventh overall.
The Terriers did a good job of containing senior Olympian Amy Rodriguez and
USC's point leader Ashli Sandoval; however, goals from Ashley Nick and Janessa
Currier gave the Trojans the two-goal victory.
USC came out on the attack early as Amy Rodriguez and Marihelen Tomer
peppered Reilly with two quick shots to start the match. Rodriguez rocketed a
point-blank shot at Reilly, who came up with a diving stop, and on the ensuing
rebound Tomer one-timed it from the 18-yard box high over the net. Following the
early USC attack, both teams settled in with the majority of the play in the
midfield.
Freshman Jessica
Luscinski recorded BU's first shot of the game, a hard strike from 20-yards
out that sailed high of the net at 28:44, and less than a minute later the squad
earned its first corner kick of the contest, which was defended by the Trojans.
On a counter attack in the 40th minute, USC's Brittany Kerridge fired off a
shot that junior Casey
Brown blocked for a team save and less than a minute later Reilly came off
her line to save a Trojan corner kick. With two minutes remaining in the first
stanza, USC's Stacey Strong sent a cross into the box that Reilly punched out,
and Nini Loucks fired a low, hard strike into the near left corner that forced
Reilly to the ground for the stop.
The BU defense
was able to withstand the Trojans' potent attack, which had netted 48 goals
through 20 games prior to Thursday, and Reilly made five saves in the first
stanza.
USC broke through five minutes into the second half, as Janessa Currier found
the back of the net off a pass from Ashley Nick. Ashli Sandoval set up the goal
with a free kick into the box. USC's Amy Rodriguez nearly upped the lead to two
with 26 minutes remaining, but Reilly came off her line aggressively to cut down
the angle and senior Elizabeth Speck closed in
on Rodriguez, forcing her to shoot it wide left of the net.
The Trojans' increased their lead by two when Ashley Nick took a pass and
situated right on the penalty stripe knocked home her fourth goal of the season.
The BU senior class of Speck, Meredith Beaton, Mallory Doyle, Jennifer Herman, Shannon Mullen and Marisha
Schumacher-Hodge graduate as one of the program's most successful classes in
the history of the program with 53 wins and four-straight trips to the NCAA
tournament - the only group to accomplish that feat in BU women's soccer
history.