I. Northwestern pulls the upset of the season
Northwestern coach Stephanie Foster once scored two goals in the span of five seconds during her playing career with the Wildcats, a feat which is only slightly more probable than the final score of Sunday’s game between the alma mater she now coaches and No. 3 UCLA.
Northwestern 1, UCLA 0
And that’s not just any 1-0 score. The Wildcats not only scored one more goal than the Bruins, they took one more shot than the Bruins, who outshot Cal Poly 29-2 in a 7-0 win to open the season last week. It’s the first loss against an unranked team for UCLA since 2006, and if you want to get subjective about it, perhaps the biggest nonconference upset loss since Maryland and Utah beat UCLA in 2004.
It’s a moment worth celebrating for the Wildcats, but the question quickly becomes what happens next? Coming off an overtime win against DePaul to open the season, is this the beginning of the first NCAA tournament campaign for the program since 1998? Or will this rank as the high point of the season? (You could do worse, if so.)
We may have some pretty conclusive evidence one way or the other by the end of September — the Wildcats own one of the Big Ten’s tougher nonconference schedules, following up Sunday’s encounter with a game at BYU Tuesday and home games against Kansas, Missouri and Notre Dame before opening conference play at the end of the month.
The Wildcats have struggled to score in recent seasons, their goal production dropping in each of the last four campaigns and hitting rock bottom with just 15 goals in 19 games last season. And that was with Alicia Herczeg, who graduated ninth all time at Northwestern in goals after last season, scoring six times.
Freshman Kate Allen has all three of Northwestern’s goals this season, including, obviously, the winner against the Bruins, while Cal transfer Caroline Dagley is second on shots and seems to have settled in as a full-time starter in her second season in Evanston. If those become familiar names to Big Ten fans, the Wildcats may have the defense (22 shots and one goal against in three games) to build on a result Sunday that may just stand up as the season’s biggest shocker.
II. Long Beach State has the best weekend for teams not on a Great Lake
Long Beach State’s weekend in Texas will be overshadowed by the loss its neighbor in California suffered against Northwestern, but that’s about the only thing that didn’t go right for the 49ers.
Playing two neutral-site games at Texas A&M, Long Beach State knocked off No. 24 Washington State Friday and No. 16 Virginia Tech Sunday.
Not bad, considering the two wins matches the number Long Beach State had away from home all of last season.
Nadia Link and Jazz Strozier scored the goals in Friday’s 2-1 win against the Cougars, and Link then took care of all the scoring in Sunday’s 2-1 win against the Hokies. A sophomore, Link now has four goals on 10 shots in four games this season after going without a goal on 10 shots in 17 appearances last season.
As bad as last season was, and a 5-11-3 record overall (1-6-1 in the Big West) wasn’t good, it was also Long Beach State’s first losing season under coach Mauricio Ingrassia since he debut campaign in 2004. He’s the only coach to lead the team to a winning record since women’s soccer returned to the school’s athletic lineup in 1998. So with eight starters back, not even counting last season’s part-time starting keeper Emily Kingsborough, perhaps there was reason for optimism in Long Beach this year.
III. There are some really gifted goalkeepers out there
Maybe some will suggest this should be filed under stating the obvious, but at least anecdotally, the state of goalkeeping in the college game is encouraging.
Trust me, after being on hand for three consecutive draws to open the season (Boston College-Stanford, Connecticut-William & Mary and Penn State-Virginia), I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more balls go in the back of the net. But after an Under-20 Women’s World Cup this summer that was decidedly lacking in quality keeping (Santa Clara and USA standout Bianca Henninger rating as a notable exception to that trend), watching Jillian Mastroianni and Chantel Jones the last two weekends has been downright revelatory.
Mastroianni kept No. 7 Boston College in its game against No. 2 Stanford last week (she had a slightly easier time of it this week, as the Eagles routed Hofstra 5-0 and Central Connecticut State University 3-0), and Jones was a big part of Virginia’s 1-1 draw at Penn State. She did a nice job saving a penalty when she guessed the right way and Christine Nairn gave her a little too much of the ball to see, but that eye-opening save came when she pushed a beautiful 20-yard strike from Emma Thomson just over the bar.
There is a huge difference between having a keeper you trust not to lose a game and having a keeper who can win a game. Mastroianni, Jones and Henninger all fall under the latter category, and they aren’t alone.
“She’s been winning games for us since she started playing for us, she’s that strong,” Virginia coach Steve Swanson said. “Her maturity and growth as a player has been phenomenal. I think [assistant coach] Kerry Dziczkaniec has done a tremendous job with her. She tended to be a little more emotional when she first started playing for us; she’s such a competitor that sometimes that got the best of her. I think what we’re seeing this year is a real leader and somebody that looks confident and gives players around her confidence.”
IV. Random thoughts
Jennifer Williams scored the winner against Marquette and has three goals and two assists in four games.
But all of that hinges on Hawkins and Givan making relatively quick returns. It’s one thing to throw freshmen into the deep end of the pool for a weekend or two; it’s another to throw them into the ocean for an entire season.
Granted, Nuzzolese couldn’t help prevent Wake Forest’s 2-1 loss to UNC-Greensboro on Aug. 23, but she did score in that game, just as she has in all three of the Demon Deacons’ games this season. With a goal in Friday’s 2-1 win against East Carolina, she became the first player in school history to score in her first three career games.
Then came Sunday and Monmouth’s 1-0 upset win against No. 17 Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., a place where the Scarlet Knights were 7-2-2 last season. Granted, Rutgers outshot Monmouth 19-4 in the game and still looks like arguably the Big East’s best team this side of Notre Dame, but it was a tough loss for a team looking to get some results in advance of a tough September.
Throw in a 3-1 loss for West Virginia at Ohio State, dropping the Mountaineers to 1-2-0, and the Big East could be one big question mark.
Graham Hays 