Boston College Athletics
Photo by: John Quackenbos
Young No More As Rookies Pace BC
October 11, 2017 | Women's Soccer, #ForBoston Files
First-year Eagles are providing momentum as women's soccer preps for stretch run.
With four games left in its season, the Boston College women's soccer team is focusing squarely on the road ahead. In fourth place with a 3-2-1 conference record, the nine-win Eagles are right in the thick of the ACC's eight-team playoff race. Though BC holds the inside track to a quarterfinals home game, it knows the road ahead is only becoming that much more challenging.
At 9-5-1 overall, BC is one of the nation's grittiest teams. Incredibly tough to beat at Newton Campus with a 6-1 home record, a late season challenge features three consecutive games against the nation's top programs. For this team, glory is achievable, thanks to a rookie class establishing itself as the team's nucleus.
"We've had quite a few young players play quite a few minutes," head coach Alison Foley said. "At the beginning of the season, we said we would be a much better team when we started ACC play than we were in our non-conference (matches). We wanted to get our incoming and rookie players experience during non-conference games so they could get much sharper during the ACC. That's been the case. The experience of getting so many minutes in non-conference became great for all of us."
For BC, it isn't about just one player or unit because its youngsters stepped into every possible aspect of the game. Up front, Sam Coffey is the team's second leading scorer with 14 points. Through the midfield, Jillian Jennings is playing with more confidence every day. In back, Gianna Mitchell is dominant, already one of the toughest defenders in Division I.
Defender Mijke Roelfsema, a native of the Netherlands, has easily made the transition to college soccer. Elysa Virella, a junior college transfer, is a seamless fit after playing two years at Monroe College in New York.
"They all have amazing individual qualities that are helping us right away," Foley said. "Gianna is one of the best players of the year in the league. She's a beast at the center back position and can go against anybody with no problem. Sam Coffey - also among one of the top freshmen in the country - can run at plays, flip balls and is great on set pieces. She has that experience with the national program that shows in her game.
"Elysa had some experience coming in from junior college, but she's adding her own flavor to the outside back," the coach continued. "Mijke is as good technically as any player on the ball. Jillian Jennings has come a long way, and she's really found herself in the midfield next to her sister. They're telepathic, and she's really confident in there."
It's an expected youth movement, though it wasn't instantaneous. Foley's early-season alchemy moved players around to work them into different roles. Coffey and Virella found instant success in their own personal positions, but it took a little elbow grease and coaching ingenuity to drop pieces into place.
"Sam and Elysa are playing the same position that they started while the others have had to move around," Foley said. "Right around when we came back from Stony Brook and around the St. John's game, Jill started coming into her own, and we found her the best position in terms of combination around her. She started playing next to her sister (Kayla Jennings, a redshirt sophomore), which helped build her confidence so everything started clicking for her."
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Mitchell clicked as soon as she found her home in the center back. BC had been, according to Foley, "going back and forth" at the position through the first few games before a decision moved her out of the defensive center midfielder position and into the center back next to senior captain Allyson Swaby.
"She was phenomenal," Foley said. "Once we put her next to Swaby, we never turned back. You just can't get by them. They're two tough center backs playing together."
Like Mitchell and Swaby's cooperative prowess on defense, the Eagles blossomed thanks to undeniable chemistry. With a need to develop young players, older players stepped up, providing exemplary leadership for every facet of life as a student-athlete.
"Our chemistry has built our momentum," Foley said. "It's still going so strong and so great, which is a credit to our upperclassmen. Whatever an upperclassman does is seen by an underclassman, and they're going to follow suit. Our upperclassmen have led in terms of training mentality, in terms of classroom, in terms of following rules and even in travel in being courteous to wait staff and bus drivers. I couldn't be happier with the way those players taught the younger class what BC soccer is all about in so many different capacities.
"Chemistry brings us back to that momentum," she reiterated. "I'm sure a couple of (older players) want to be starting, but everyone gets it. They know it's a coaching decision, and they've been so supportive (of the team). It's not always this way. I'm very thankful because I've had it go the other way before."
Armed with a loaded team, BC barrels into its stretch run with three straight games at home. Despite an apparent mastery of home turf, playoff drama awaits with perfect foils in No. 5 North Carolina, No. 4 Duke and No. 14 Virginia. Eight of the ACC's 14 teams qualify for postseason games with the top half retaining home field advantage.
That puts a white-hot spotlight on the remaining contests at home. Starting this weekend, BC plays three teams sitting at a combined 31-6-3. It opens with two games against certified powerhouses in the Tar Heels and Blue Devils, standing alone at a combined 23-3.
"Lauren Berman is our leading scorer, and Allyson Swaby is one of the best defenders in the country," Foley said. "(Goalkeeper Alexis Bryant) has done really well for us. When your captains (Berman and Swaby) get it done on the field and are great people off the field, it's really easy to have a great season. When you don't have one of those things going on, it can make for a different season. But they do it all - both on the field and off - and that trickles down into everyone else on the team."
The Eagles open up their stretch run against No. 3/5 North Carolina on Saturday at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
At 9-5-1 overall, BC is one of the nation's grittiest teams. Incredibly tough to beat at Newton Campus with a 6-1 home record, a late season challenge features three consecutive games against the nation's top programs. For this team, glory is achievable, thanks to a rookie class establishing itself as the team's nucleus.
"We've had quite a few young players play quite a few minutes," head coach Alison Foley said. "At the beginning of the season, we said we would be a much better team when we started ACC play than we were in our non-conference (matches). We wanted to get our incoming and rookie players experience during non-conference games so they could get much sharper during the ACC. That's been the case. The experience of getting so many minutes in non-conference became great for all of us."
For BC, it isn't about just one player or unit because its youngsters stepped into every possible aspect of the game. Up front, Sam Coffey is the team's second leading scorer with 14 points. Through the midfield, Jillian Jennings is playing with more confidence every day. In back, Gianna Mitchell is dominant, already one of the toughest defenders in Division I.
Defender Mijke Roelfsema, a native of the Netherlands, has easily made the transition to college soccer. Elysa Virella, a junior college transfer, is a seamless fit after playing two years at Monroe College in New York.
"They all have amazing individual qualities that are helping us right away," Foley said. "Gianna is one of the best players of the year in the league. She's a beast at the center back position and can go against anybody with no problem. Sam Coffey - also among one of the top freshmen in the country - can run at plays, flip balls and is great on set pieces. She has that experience with the national program that shows in her game.
"Elysa had some experience coming in from junior college, but she's adding her own flavor to the outside back," the coach continued. "Mijke is as good technically as any player on the ball. Jillian Jennings has come a long way, and she's really found herself in the midfield next to her sister. They're telepathic, and she's really confident in there."
It's an expected youth movement, though it wasn't instantaneous. Foley's early-season alchemy moved players around to work them into different roles. Coffey and Virella found instant success in their own personal positions, but it took a little elbow grease and coaching ingenuity to drop pieces into place.
"Sam and Elysa are playing the same position that they started while the others have had to move around," Foley said. "Right around when we came back from Stony Brook and around the St. John's game, Jill started coming into her own, and we found her the best position in terms of combination around her. She started playing next to her sister (Kayla Jennings, a redshirt sophomore), which helped build her confidence so everything started clicking for her."
Â
Mitchell clicked as soon as she found her home in the center back. BC had been, according to Foley, "going back and forth" at the position through the first few games before a decision moved her out of the defensive center midfielder position and into the center back next to senior captain Allyson Swaby.
"She was phenomenal," Foley said. "Once we put her next to Swaby, we never turned back. You just can't get by them. They're two tough center backs playing together."
Like Mitchell and Swaby's cooperative prowess on defense, the Eagles blossomed thanks to undeniable chemistry. With a need to develop young players, older players stepped up, providing exemplary leadership for every facet of life as a student-athlete.
"Our chemistry has built our momentum," Foley said. "It's still going so strong and so great, which is a credit to our upperclassmen. Whatever an upperclassman does is seen by an underclassman, and they're going to follow suit. Our upperclassmen have led in terms of training mentality, in terms of classroom, in terms of following rules and even in travel in being courteous to wait staff and bus drivers. I couldn't be happier with the way those players taught the younger class what BC soccer is all about in so many different capacities.
"Chemistry brings us back to that momentum," she reiterated. "I'm sure a couple of (older players) want to be starting, but everyone gets it. They know it's a coaching decision, and they've been so supportive (of the team). It's not always this way. I'm very thankful because I've had it go the other way before."
Armed with a loaded team, BC barrels into its stretch run with three straight games at home. Despite an apparent mastery of home turf, playoff drama awaits with perfect foils in No. 5 North Carolina, No. 4 Duke and No. 14 Virginia. Eight of the ACC's 14 teams qualify for postseason games with the top half retaining home field advantage.
That puts a white-hot spotlight on the remaining contests at home. Starting this weekend, BC plays three teams sitting at a combined 31-6-3. It opens with two games against certified powerhouses in the Tar Heels and Blue Devils, standing alone at a combined 23-3.
"Lauren Berman is our leading scorer, and Allyson Swaby is one of the best defenders in the country," Foley said. "(Goalkeeper Alexis Bryant) has done really well for us. When your captains (Berman and Swaby) get it done on the field and are great people off the field, it's really easy to have a great season. When you don't have one of those things going on, it can make for a different season. But they do it all - both on the field and off - and that trickles down into everyone else on the team."
The Eagles open up their stretch run against No. 3/5 North Carolina on Saturday at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
Players Mentioned
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