Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Meg Kelly
August 19, 2024 | Women's Soccer, #ForBoston Files
BC's new head women's soccer coach earned a pair of wins during opening weekend
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- The resounding stamp on Boston College's 5-1 victory over Merrimack on Sunday afternoon occurred long after the Eagles removed doubt from the result. A ball that trickled towards goal ping-ponged through the defensive backline as the Warriors stepped back from their pressure and attempted to interrupt BC's midfield. Two passes moved the ball to a run up the left wing, after which Emily Sapienza rotated further back. A one-touch pass found her foot as she moved upfield, and she swung a through ball to Sydney Segalla as the Connecticut native wove through a one-on-one marking.Â
Segalla swung towards goal and delivered a strike past two Merrimack defenders. The fifth BC goal was her second goal of the game, and the final tally came with less than nine minutes remaining on a weekend sweep. The win over last year's Northeast Conference regular season champion successfully bookended the start of a new era for head coach Chris Watkins, and coupled with the clean sheet victory in the opener over Jacksonville, laid the cornerstone of the foundation for a high-flying program bent on regaining its championship stride.
"We're a transition team with really speedy wings," said Watkins after the Merrimack victory. "We can get behind and through people pretty well. We've got to do a better job of getting our midfielders involved with playing the best ball, but we're going to get forward, and in a game like [Sunday], where we came out [shooting in the first minute], you get to establish that [pace] a little earlier."
Newton Campus is a hidden jewel capable of showcasing Boston College's storied history within the world's most beautiful game. It's not quite as showy or flashy as the main Chestnut Hill artery logging space along the MBTA's fabled Green Line, but its intimacy offers staple components to a campus culture that's situated back from the trees of and forestry engulfing the Centre Street entrance.
The banners lining the soccer and lacrosse facility near the back end of the campus offer the pointed glimpse into those eras. To one side, four conference tournament victories are the preamble to the dozen-plus national tournament berths of a men's soccer program with alumni dotting the world's professional leagues, but the women's side holds its own with 19 NCAA Tournament appearances and three trips to the Elite Eight. The lone College Cup appearance from 2010 looms large near the midfield stripe with its platter serving the appetizer to the main course stories from the Eagles' tenure near the top of the college soccer universe. It is now-six year void since the Eagles' last trip to the national tournament. The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight candidacies are even longer, the national reputation that was developed at a time when the United States emerged as a hotbed for women's soccer is now an unfortunate gap against the backdrop of a more-swollen conference footprint.
Watkins understood that challenge when he accepted BC's open position in December. His hugely successful tenure at Gonzaga produced 70-plus wins over seven years and built near-annual finishes near the top of the West Coast Conference standings. The Zags won 10 games on an annual basis after clinching the first double-digit win total in a decade during his second year, pushing the WCC juggernauts at Santa Clara, Brigham Young or Pepperdine until they broke through in 2023, taking the WCC championship for themselves.
"It's the reason why I invest [in a program]," said Watkins. "BC was a bit of a lull in its soccer program, and I invested in BC because we should be better. I hope I can do my own little part to get there [because] we can get there. This place is beautiful. I saw the facility, and I saw our resources on campus. We can be a lot better than we are, so I'm here to try to make it happen."
Getting those first two results was a critical step towards laying the groundwork for that improvement. A BC team that averaged eight shots per game nearly quadrupled that number against both the Dolphins and the Warriors, and the 21 shots on goal is just under 30 percent of last year's entire number. The five goals against Merrimack was the largest offensive output since a 5-0 win over Holy Cross during the 2021 season and included the most goals by a BC team in a non-Covid season since 2018.
Both Segalla and Paige Peltier notched four points against Merrimack after Peltier scored a goal with two assists, and four different Eagles, including freshman Ashley Roberts, struck for their first goals of the season. Nine different BC players had at least one point, and both Sapienza and Aislin Streicek registered 10 shots with Streicek edging Sapienza, 5-4, on shots on goal.
"We're playing relatively simple balls," said Watkins. "We can run on anyone and certainly score, but we've got to be a little bit more creative. We have to play a little more chess to beat our better opponents, but our forwards are running really well and doing a good job of seeing that space and running to the space. It's fun to watch."
The excitement is tempered by the understanding that there is a longer road to cover. An ACC teeming with ranked programs added one of the best teams in college soccer history when Stanford joined the conference, and Cal qualified for 14 consecutive NCAA Tournaments before a "downturn" produced two berths in the last six years. Even SMU, a team that wasn't in a power conference after joining the WAC in the 1990s, advanced to an NCAA Tournament in 2021 and defeated Texas before losing to Florida State.
"We want to win," Watkins said, "and we're going to learn how to win. Merrimack was a good team and won its conference last year before changing [to the MAAC], but we're just scratching the surface of what this can be."
BC returns to the pitch on Thursday when it hosts Gardner-Webb with its Weeks of Welcome match at 1 pm before hosting Long Island on Sunday afternoon. ACC play opens on September 12 with the team's Red Bandanna Game against Notre Dame.
Segalla swung towards goal and delivered a strike past two Merrimack defenders. The fifth BC goal was her second goal of the game, and the final tally came with less than nine minutes remaining on a weekend sweep. The win over last year's Northeast Conference regular season champion successfully bookended the start of a new era for head coach Chris Watkins, and coupled with the clean sheet victory in the opener over Jacksonville, laid the cornerstone of the foundation for a high-flying program bent on regaining its championship stride.
"We're a transition team with really speedy wings," said Watkins after the Merrimack victory. "We can get behind and through people pretty well. We've got to do a better job of getting our midfielders involved with playing the best ball, but we're going to get forward, and in a game like [Sunday], where we came out [shooting in the first minute], you get to establish that [pace] a little earlier."
Newton Campus is a hidden jewel capable of showcasing Boston College's storied history within the world's most beautiful game. It's not quite as showy or flashy as the main Chestnut Hill artery logging space along the MBTA's fabled Green Line, but its intimacy offers staple components to a campus culture that's situated back from the trees of and forestry engulfing the Centre Street entrance.
The banners lining the soccer and lacrosse facility near the back end of the campus offer the pointed glimpse into those eras. To one side, four conference tournament victories are the preamble to the dozen-plus national tournament berths of a men's soccer program with alumni dotting the world's professional leagues, but the women's side holds its own with 19 NCAA Tournament appearances and three trips to the Elite Eight. The lone College Cup appearance from 2010 looms large near the midfield stripe with its platter serving the appetizer to the main course stories from the Eagles' tenure near the top of the college soccer universe. It is now-six year void since the Eagles' last trip to the national tournament. The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight candidacies are even longer, the national reputation that was developed at a time when the United States emerged as a hotbed for women's soccer is now an unfortunate gap against the backdrop of a more-swollen conference footprint.
Watkins understood that challenge when he accepted BC's open position in December. His hugely successful tenure at Gonzaga produced 70-plus wins over seven years and built near-annual finishes near the top of the West Coast Conference standings. The Zags won 10 games on an annual basis after clinching the first double-digit win total in a decade during his second year, pushing the WCC juggernauts at Santa Clara, Brigham Young or Pepperdine until they broke through in 2023, taking the WCC championship for themselves.
"It's the reason why I invest [in a program]," said Watkins. "BC was a bit of a lull in its soccer program, and I invested in BC because we should be better. I hope I can do my own little part to get there [because] we can get there. This place is beautiful. I saw the facility, and I saw our resources on campus. We can be a lot better than we are, so I'm here to try to make it happen."
Getting those first two results was a critical step towards laying the groundwork for that improvement. A BC team that averaged eight shots per game nearly quadrupled that number against both the Dolphins and the Warriors, and the 21 shots on goal is just under 30 percent of last year's entire number. The five goals against Merrimack was the largest offensive output since a 5-0 win over Holy Cross during the 2021 season and included the most goals by a BC team in a non-Covid season since 2018.
Both Segalla and Paige Peltier notched four points against Merrimack after Peltier scored a goal with two assists, and four different Eagles, including freshman Ashley Roberts, struck for their first goals of the season. Nine different BC players had at least one point, and both Sapienza and Aislin Streicek registered 10 shots with Streicek edging Sapienza, 5-4, on shots on goal.
"We're playing relatively simple balls," said Watkins. "We can run on anyone and certainly score, but we've got to be a little bit more creative. We have to play a little more chess to beat our better opponents, but our forwards are running really well and doing a good job of seeing that space and running to the space. It's fun to watch."
The excitement is tempered by the understanding that there is a longer road to cover. An ACC teeming with ranked programs added one of the best teams in college soccer history when Stanford joined the conference, and Cal qualified for 14 consecutive NCAA Tournaments before a "downturn" produced two berths in the last six years. Even SMU, a team that wasn't in a power conference after joining the WAC in the 1990s, advanced to an NCAA Tournament in 2021 and defeated Texas before losing to Florida State.
"We want to win," Watkins said, "and we're going to learn how to win. Merrimack was a good team and won its conference last year before changing [to the MAAC], but we're just scratching the surface of what this can be."
BC returns to the pitch on Thursday when it hosts Gardner-Webb with its Weeks of Welcome match at 1 pm before hosting Long Island on Sunday afternoon. ACC play opens on September 12 with the team's Red Bandanna Game against Notre Dame.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Soccer
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/ Women's Soccer
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/ Women's Soccer
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/ Women's Soccer
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