Boston College Women’s Soccer Falls in NCAA First Round to Hofstra

Boston College women’s soccer ended their season tonight with a 4-1 loss to the Hofstra Pride in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was one of those nights where everything went wrong for the Eagles. It started with a hard collision involving Jenna Bike and Pride goalkeeper Jenna Borresen at 18 minutes. Bike, one of BC’s top three offensive players in SOG this season, was lost for the remainder of the game with a leg injury. Alexis Bryant then gave up a very unlucky goal at 24:29. Jillian Jennings came across to clear the ball away from Hofstra’s Lucy Porter right in front of the goal. Jennings just missed and Porter put the ball behind Jennings’ leg. Bryant was not able to see the ball until it was too late, diving a second late as the ball trickled in.

Just after Hofstra took the lead, the rain opened up. Both teams struggled for a while to control attacks on the wet surface. The Eagles moved Kayla Duran up front and pushed forward more players to attack at the start of the second half. They put together a few close chances, including a Sam Coffey kick that bounced off the crossbar. Hofstra’s Sabrina Bryan made it 2-0 at 74:53 after soaring it over Alexis Bryant who had come out to challenge. Bryan struck again at 74:54 to put the Eagles down 3-0 and it was too much to overcome. Gaby Carreiro fed Olivia Vaughn with a cross that she punched in at 76:24 to get one back, but Hofstra drew a foul that was crossed in to Lucy Shepherd for the 82:29 goal to put the Pride up 4-1.

This is a disappointing end to BC’s season, being bounced in the first round from both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. The two tournament losses were the Eagles’ only home losses this year. They end the season with an overall record of 14-5-1. The team will return much of their squad next season, but must look to replace senior goalkeeper Alexis Bryant.