The University of Akron women’s soccer team fell 3-2 to the Patriot League’s Boston University in the Zips’ home opener.
It was quite a match, one with a number of lead changes as momentum switched back and forth from side to side.
The level of competition and the difficulty of the schedule is certainly up a notch for Akron this season, the second under the expert tutelage of Head Coach Vernon Croft.
Croft has countered that step up in play with some serious injections of talent, most notably Lani Smith, who transferred in from South Carolina. Smith was an absolute terror for the Terriers’ defense, posing a constant threat to score at a moment’s notice.
“She brings a different element to our attack,” Croft suggested. “She provides us with a true goalscoring threat as a player. We are excited to have her as part of the program.”
But it was Clare Pleuler that scored for Boston in the 5th minute, with Madison Kaser landed the equalizer for UA in the 30th minute. Madison Clemens set up Pleuler with a pass in the box, which she put into the bottom left corner. Kaser’s goal came off a header on a corner kick from Sarah Sivic.
“That is a heck of a team we just played,” Croft stated. “We just got stung with that early goal, but we’re superproud of our kids to battle back.”
The second half began with Boston on the attack, but it was Akron that struck first. Sivic came up with her third goal of the season, beating Andrea Green to her right in the 61st minute. The home crowd was clearly excited about Akron’s 2-1 lead, but that lead unfortunately was short-lived.
Boston responded less than four minutes later with a goal of their own after Jamie Turchi launched a high shot just out of the reach of UA keeper Klaire Adee.
Boston continued to apply the pressure with limited scoring opportunities coming the way of UA.
The Terriers managed to finally put things away in the 79th minute with an unassisted goal from Erica Kosienski, slipping one more past Adee.
The Terriers seemed to be just a step sharper in the second half, applying loads of pressure on the Zips backline. Akron bent and finally broke with a little over 20 minutes remaining, but otherwise put in a strong performance against one of New England’s best programs.
Adee, a Rockford, IL native, finished with 3 saves in goal for the Zips. The sophomore keeper faced an incredible 20 shots, including 13 from the 2nd half alone. It was a strong performance for a young player that has played herself into the starting XI, ahead of redshirt junior Alex Luevano-Harden.
Playing such a strong schedule is a major step forward for the program as a whole. The thought is it will pay off when play in the MAC begins.
“I think the biggest thing it should do for us is provide us some confidence,” Croft added. “We’ve taken three teams from three major conferences and we’ve played them. We played three overtime games in the last four games.”
The Zips now hit the road to face Canisius on September 15th before returning home to face fellow Ohio side Cleveland State on September 22nd.
