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The Boston College women's soccer team fell to Notre Dame 3-1 last night in South Bend. Boston College senior Kate McCarthy had the Eagles lone goal, but not before the Irish jumped out to a 3-0 lead with goals from Karin Simonian, Morgan Andrews and Mandy Laddish. With the loss, the Eagles fall to 8-8-1 overall and 4-6-1 in the ACC on the year. Notre Dame improves to 10-5-1 and 6-4-2 in conference play.
The bigger story for BC is that a season that started with such promise -- including taking second ranked Stanford to OT in the opener -- may be over much sooner than Coach Alison Foley would like.
You see, like a proper conference tournament should -- looking at you, Hockey East -- only the top 8 programs will qualify for this year's ACC Women's Soccer Championship, meaning that six of the league's 14 schools season will be over next weekend. With 13 points (4-6-1), the Eagles are currently in 10th place in the conference standings, two spots below the cut line, and in danger of missing the ACC Championship altogether.
The good news is that the teams ranked sixth through 10th are separated by just four points with two games to play. Should the Eagles win their final two games at Maryland and vs. Syracuse (for three more #OrangeEagle points), BC can still finish as high as sixth ... with some help. Unfortunately, there's also the distinct possibility that the Eagles win out and still miss out on qualifying for the Championship.
The bad news is that three teams ahead of Boston College in the league table -- Wake Forest (17 points), Maryland (15) and Duke (15) -- have one game remaining against either N.C. State or Pittsburgh, two teams that have combined for a 1-22-0 record in conference play. BC's next game, Sunday, October 27 at Maryland (1 p.m.), becomes essentially a must-win if the Eagles hope to earn a spot in next month's Women's Soccer Championship. The margin of error for BC at this point is very, very small.
| RANK | SCHOOLS | GP | W | L | D | POINTS | PCT | W | L | D | PCT | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | 11 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 1.000 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | FSU, VT |
| 2 | Florida State | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 29 | 0.909 | 14 | 0 | 3 | 0.912 | @ UVA, ND |
| 3 | Virginia Tech | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 0.773 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 0.824 | MIA, @ UVA |
| 4 | North Carolina | 11 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 0.727 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0.824 | @ WF, DU |
| 5 | Notre Dame | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 19 | 0.591 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0.656 | @ CU, @ FSU |
| 6 | Wake Forest | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 0.545 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 0.688 | UNC, @ NCST |
| 7 | Maryland | 11 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 0.455 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 0.529 | BC, PITT |
| 8 | Duke | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 0.500 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0.529 | PITT, @ UNC |
| 9 | Clemson | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 14 | 0.455 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0.529 | ND, @ MIA |
| 10 | Boston College | 11 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 0.450 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0.500 | @ UMD, SU |
| 11 | Miami | 11 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 10 | 0.318 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0.531 | @ VT, CU |
| 12 | Syracuse | 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 0.292 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 0.417 | @ BC |
| 13 | N.C. State | 12 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0.083 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 0.333 | WF |
| 14 | Pittsburgh | 11 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 0.265 | @ DU, @ UMD |