Senior duo takes Tigers past Terriers in season opener

Down by one with 18 minutes left to play in the women's soccer team's season opener against Boston University, senior midfielder and tri-captain Lisa Chinn was blazing down the right sideline. Looking up, she saw senior forward Sarah Peteraf just in front of the goal and touched it over. Peteraf neatly slid past two defenders and the goalie, and then shot the ball into an open net to tie the game at one.

Though it seemed as if that score would stand to the end, Chinn came through for her teammates once more with just over a minute left to play, taking the Tigers past the Terriers for a 2-1 victory.

"I'm proud of the win because this was a good team that had three games under [its] belt. I feel pretty good about it," head coach Julie Shackford said.

Playing the first game in a brand-new stadium, complete with perfectly manicured natural grass, the stage was set for Princeton (1-0 overall) to start the 2008 season with a huge statement. Though the team just graduated one of its leading players, Diana Matheson '08, the overall atmosphere leading up to last night's game against BU (1-3) was one of expectation.

During the first half, though, the excitement fizzled into a fairly uneventful game, and the Terriers dominated play and possession. For the past few years, BU has presented the Tigers with a tough early-season matchup, and tonight was no different. For the first half, most of the play occurred on the Tigers' side of the field.

Despite this dominance, the first really close call did not come until the 60-minute mark, with a Terrier corner kick. One BU girl butted the ball toward the goal, and she would have scored, except for a great save by sophomore goalkeeper Alyssa Pont.

Ten minutes later, however, the Terriers broke the stalemate and put the first number on the scoreboard, as Farrell McClernon spun away from Princeton's defense to boot it in just under the crossbar from 25 yards out.

"We don't have a star," Shackford said. "Over the last eight or nine years, we've always had someone like [Matheson or Emily Behncke '06] where you know something special will happen with them. I think everybody else has just had to pick up slack. It means that we have to defend really well together, we have to attack really well together and hope that in games different people will step up and help us."

Last night the senior duo of Peteraf and Chinn was the one to make things happen, teaming up to stop BU's momentum in its tracks.

For the next 16 minutes, despite a few shots on goal from both sides, the game looked as if it would end in a tie.

The Tigers had other ideas.

With 1:06 left to play, sophomore defender Bernie Da Costa drove all the way up the field and angled the ball to Chinn.

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"I've got to give credit to Bernie, that was a ridiculous run, it was like half the field," Chinn said after the game. "I saw [the ball] floating across and I was just like, ‘I have to make this.' "

With perfect placement, Chinn slotted the ball to the far post, sealing the Tigers' opening-day victory, the senior class' only opening day victory in its four seasons.