Sept. 22, 2006

Box Score

Brookline, Mass. - The George Mason women's soccer team started the Colonial Athletic Association portion of its schedule on Friday night in Boston and the trip to Beantown wasn't a pleasant one for the Patriots as Northeastern defeated Mason, 3-0.

The Patriots had just two shots on goal but couldn't connect on either. Northeastern had just five shots on goal and the Huskies made the most of them. Sophia Palmquist scored just 8:50 into the match on assists from Laura Johnson and Hanna Olsson. The Patriots kept the deficit at just a goal until 30:03 into the match when Liza Rebello scored on a pass from Jenna Lucchesi. Rebello leads Northeastern in scoring with four goals on the year. The final goal came with fewer than two minutes to go off the foot of Jenna Lucchesi.

The game was in sharp contrast to last year's affair when Mason took a 6-5 overtime win in a driving rainstorm. The teams traded goals throughout the night until Mason finally scored the game-winner three minutes into overtime. There was never a danger of an extra period on Friday as Mason was unable to convert on either of its corner kicks and a pair of direct kicks from within 30 yards.

Northeastern could be the surprise of the CAA this year. They were selected to finish in the bottom quarter of the league in the preseason poll of CAA coaches. After Friday night, the Huskies improved to 5-2-1 with both losses coming to teams ranked in the nation's top 11.

The Patriots fell to 3-5-1 with the loss but they have lost four straight and been held scoreless for the past 390 minutes. The Patriots will look to get on the scoreboard and in the win column on Sunday when they play at Hofstra at 1 p.m.