Eagles Gear Up For Thursday Night Clash With Wake Forest

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Boston College women's soccer team will host Wake Forest on Thursday night in an ACC battle at the Newton Campus Soccer Field. The match, which is set for a 7 p.m. start, will air live on ACCNX, which streams live on the ESPN App.

Game 10 | Boston College vs Wake Forest
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 | 7:00 p.m.
Newton Campus Soccer Field | Newton, Mass.

A WIN OVER WAKE FOREST WOULD . . .
• Move Boston College to 7-2-1 overall on the year and to 1-1-0 in ACC play.
• Bump the Eagles to 9-7-2 all-time in the series with Wake Forest with a mark of 7-2-1 at home.
• Give BC its first ACC win of the season.
• Move Jason Lowe to 1-0-2 all-time against Wake Forest.

ABOUT WAKE FOREST
• Wake Forest enters Thursday night's game with an overall record of 8-1-0 and an 0-1-0 mark in ACC play ... the Demon Deacons dropped their first match of the season, 1-0, in the ACC opener against No. 7 Virginia on Friday.
• Shayla Smart leads Wake Forest with 13 points off of six goals and one assist ... four of her goals have been game-winners ... eleven different players have scored a goal for the Demon Deacons.
• Goalkeeper Kaitlyn Parks has started eight of nine contests, going 7-1-0 with a .938 save percentage and 0.13 goals against average.
• Head coach Tony da Luz is in his 25th season as head coach of the Demon Deacons.

SERIES HISTORY VS WAKE FOREST
• Boston College has a record of 8-7-2 in the all-time series with Wake Forest with a mark of 6-2-1 at home.
• These two teams first met on Oct. 2, 2005, with the Demon Deacons coming to Newton and pulling out a 2-1 win.
• Last season, the teams battled to a 1-1 double overtime tie at Spry Stadium ... Sam Smith scored for the Eagles in the match.
• Thirteen of the 17 meetings in the series have been decided by one goal.
• The Eagles own the longest win streak in the series at five games.
• In addition to being a Wake Forest men's soccer alumni, BC head coach Jason Lowe spent five seasons on Tony da Luz's staff.
• BC graduate student Abby McNamara played in 63 career games at Wake Forest, making 19 starts ... she recorded seven goals and three assists for 17 points in four seasons as a Demon Deacon … she was a part of two NCAA tournament teams at Wake Forest (along with Lowe) and advanced to the second round in 2017 and the Sweet 16 in 2018.

THE LOWE DOWN
• Boston College head coach Jason Lowe is a 1998 graduate of Wake Forest ... Lowe served as a goalkeeper for the Demon Deacons men's soccer squad from 1994-97.
• Additionally, he spent five years on Tony da Luz's staff, starting as an assistant coach in 2014 before being promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2017 season.
• The Demon Deacons made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching the round of 32 in 2017, and upset No. 2 seed West Virginia en route to the Sweet 16 in 2018.

LAST TIME OUT
• Boston College opened up the ACC slate at No. 1 Florida State on Saturday night, dropping a 4-1 contest in Tallahassee.
• After a scoreless first half, FSU scored what would be the eventual game-winning goal in the 49th minute and then added insurance goals in the 56th and 73rd minute.
• After a fourth FSU goal in the 83rd, Linda Boama converted a penalty kick to put the Eagles on the board.
• Goalkeeper Wiebke Willebrandt finished with a season-high 12 saves for BC.

RICHARDS (THE ROOKIE)
• Ella Richards leads the Eagles with 20 points on a team-high eight goals and four assists.
• The freshman sits first in the ACC in points (20) and tied first in goals (8) and goals per game (0.89).
• Richards has scored eight goals in the first nine games of the season, including three braces.
• She scored twice against Harvard, UMass and Kennesaw State ... the Chicago native also had a one goal, two assist outing against UConn.
• She scored her first career game-winning goal against UMass.

FIRST THINGS FIRST
• Through the first nine games of the 2021 season, several Eagles have recorded some firsts.
• In the season opener at Iona on Aug. 19, Linda Boama scored twice, notching the first and second goals of her career with the brace ... also in that game, Ella Richards scored her first career goal while Jessica Carlton and Taliyah Walker picked up their first points with assists.
• Wiebke Willebrandt made her first career start at Iona and earned her first career shutout with four saves.
• Graduate students Haley Thomas and Abby McNamara made their BC debuts at Iona.
• Thomas went on to record her first assist as an Eagle in a win over BU on Aug. 26.
• Abby McNamara scored her first goal as an Eagle in BC's 4-0 win at Kennesaw State on Sept. 5.
• Éabha O'Mahony, Andi Barth, Richards, Sarai Costello, Carlton and Walker all made their collegiate debuts at Iona.
• Costello earned her first career point with an assist against UConn on Aug. 29 ... Barth picked up her first collegiate point with an assist against Holy Cross on Sept. 12.

2021 CAPTAINS
• The Eagles are led by Jenna Bike, Mia Karras and Michela Agresti in 2021.
• This is the second consecutive year that Bike and Karras are captaining the Eagles while Agresti is a first-time captain.
• In 2021, Bike started all 14 contests for the Eagles in her return to the pitch from injury ... the graduate student finished second on the team in scoring with 10 points on four goals and two assists.
• Karras, a graduate student, played and started all 14 of BC's contests last season.
• Agresti has started all 32 game that BC has played in her first two seasons on the Heights ... the defender played at least 90 minutes in 31 of 32 games.

Eagles Gear Up For Thursday Night Clash With Wake Forest

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Players Mentioned

Michela Agresti

Andi Barth

Jenna Bike

Linda Boama

Jessica Carlton

Sarai Costello

Mia Karras

Abby McNamara

Ella Richards

Sam Smith

Haley Thomas

Taliyah Walker

Wiebke Willebrandt