 Media Credit: David Trudo The Eagles were aided this season by the outstanding play of its freshmen like Hannah Cerrone.
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 The Eagles were aided this season by the steady prescence of veterans such as Kia McNeill.
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The long-running regional rivalry between former Big East foes Boston College and the University of Connecticut has become increasingly fierce in recent years, following BC's move to the Atlantic Coast Conference and UConn's subsequent unsuccessful lawsuit against BC. As a result of this animosity, meetings between the Eagles and the Huskies are becoming increasingly rare in all sports.
But on Friday night, the rivalry will be renewed again - on a very big stage. The BC women's soccer team (11-5-3) has been selected for its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament, and will open up tournament play on Newton Campus Soccer Field against the Huskies (12-5-1). The winner of that match-up will advance to face the winner of the game between Wake Forest and Boston University, also to be held in Newton, Mass.
The Eagles have made the NCAA Sweet 16 two years in a row and appear to be in contention to do so again this year - but with a much younger team than in years past. BC had to deal with the graduation of one of the best players in team history, Laura Georges, and the incorporation of eight freshmen into the squad.
BC started the season 8-0-3 but stumbled out of the top 10 down the stretch, finishing up 3-5, including a loss to Florida State in the quarterfinals of last week's ACC tournament.
Despite the late road bumps, however, head coach Alison Kulik is confident in her team's ability to make another deep run in the NCAA tournament.
"The game that really convinced me that we were in a good position for postseason was the [Virginia] game," says Kulik. "They came into that game No. 3 in the country, and it was fitting that we were able to get the win on senior day. That win told me that we belonged in the NCAAs."
The Eagles' strong season has been fueled by their highly touted freshman class, which was ranked No. 1 in America by the publication Soccer Buzz. Kulik says that the freshmen have exceeded their lofty expectations.
"There were three or four that had a lot of hype coming in - Hannah Cerrone, Amy Caldwell, Chelsea Regan, Brooke Knowlton - and they have all added a lot, not just scoring goals, but with the intensity they bring to the game," she said, "but the biggest surprise in this class has been Natalie Crutchfield," a 5-foot-2 midfielder from Acton, Mass.
"She kept getting better and better every game, and the more she plays with these kids, the better she gets. And she's ready to play UConn, because she only played five minutes against them in the preseason game," she continued, referring to BC's 2-0 loss at the hands of the Huskies on Aug. 18.
BC's defense has also stepped up after the graduation of Georges, the French national defender who made a big splash during her time at the Heights.
"Kia McNeil has been exceptional back there - she's fast, she wins a lot of balls. But the person who gets the most overlooked back there is Caroline Walden. She's steady, she's smart, and she holds it all together back there," Kulik said.
She also lauded freshman defender Hannah Cerrone for her improvement throughout the season. "She's the one now, where, we're setting up our attack to come from the right back," she said. "And Brianna Wilson-Byrne has been great out of the back as well."
As for the challenge of preparing a team for the one-and-done NCAA tournament format, Kulik said that "this time of the year, our kids know what they're doing out there, but we need to get them to understand that if they lose, it's over … and we've needed to get them into that very competitive mindset."
In order to help the team get into that mindset, practices have been very competitive this week - everything from who scores the most goals, to who wins in two-on-twos and defensive drills, has been framed as a competition.
"And the losers run," Kulik said, laughing.
Turning her attention to the Huskies themselves, Kulik spoke of her respect for their winning tradition.
"I think this is the 26th straight year for UConn making the tournament," she said. "Teams like that, they know what it takes to keep surviving in the tournament. We have that to contend against. We're younger and we still need to develop that tradition."
"But if you compare personnel to personnel, I think we're real close. They've got some great players, and so do we. It's great for us to be at home as well, with all the fans behind us," she continued. "That could give us an edge."
Brittany Taylor, a junior defender, is the centerpiece of UConn's stout defense. Kulik's plan is to "get Gina [DiMartino] to pull her off of her back line," and "utilize our pace out wide … we've also got to win our individual battles in the midfield, which we've been talking about a lot this week. If we can control the midfield, we can dictate the tempo of the game, which is really important for us," she said.
Kulik also foresees a close match between BU and Wake Forest. "Wake is a really dynamic team. Unfortunately for them, they just lost their two best players to injury, Jill Hutchinson and Amanda Lebo." As for BU, she said, "They have a really organized team. I'd say that Wake Forest is more potent offensively, but BU is very steady. It should be a good match-up."
Either way, the Eagles hope to meet one of those two teams on Sunday afternoon, looking for yet another trip to the Sweet 16. For this emerging ACC power, anything less has become a disappointment.
2008 Woodie Awards
