Collegiate Times

Coming off of a tough loss to Maryland last Sunday followed by an easy victory over Longwood on Wednesday night, the Hokies seemed ready to take on another difficult opponent, but fell short.

“We had an opportunity today and the thing that was really interesting about today’s matchup is that it brought BC from right behind us and it was sort of an eye-ball matchup, eye ball to eye ball, today on who was going to sit where in the conference,” said Tech head coach Kelly Cagle.

“I think our team has to understand that they’ve got to be able to look at that, understand it, and appreciate that battle and come out willing to really hold that spot,” Cagle said. “We didn’t do that today. BC wanted to climb and we did not give enough to hold the spot we were.”

Cagle has her eyes on improvement as the season continues.

“As we continue to mature, going forward, we have to understand the competitiveness of this league, understand that it’s those little matchups that can break the season up for us and really allows us to compete and we didn’t do it today,” she said.

In the eighth meeting between the two schools, the Hokies all-time record against the Eagles fell to 1-5-2.

Both teams came out strong early, but it was the Eagles who got the ball in the net. BC’s Gina DiMartino, whose younger sister Victoria is BC’s leading scorer, netted a goal in the 10 minutes in.

It was the only goal of the game.

“Every time we won a ball we almost gave it away,” Cagle said.

Frustrated by a strong Eagle defense, the Hokies lost possession after possession Sunday and couldn’t find ways to capitalize on the attack, despite many close shot attempts.

“We weren’t good enough on the day and that’s two ACC games that we haven’t been good enough on the day and we’ve lost both of them,” Cagle continued. “So hopefully our team understands that we have to be better on the day in order to continue to compete our last half of our ACC season.”

The Hokies struggled with shot selection Sunday but did put four shots on goal to no avail.

“I think we just couldn’t find a rhythm and it just didn’t play out as we thought it would,” Tech forward Marika Gray said. “We have to find our rhythm, you don’t want to blame other teams for what happens to you.”

BC’s goalkeeper, sophomore Jillian Mastroianni, had an incredible game for the Eagles. Mastroianni made two saves, both while surrounded by the Hokie attack.

Although Tech saw great performances from defender Brittany Michels and goalkeeper Kristin Carden, the Hokies were unable to do enough to come out on top.

With the loss, the Hokies move down to fourth in the ACC standings and will likely see another slip when the new national rankings are released.

“I think it’s going to be our team’s goal to stay really connected as a group,” Cagle said. “BC is ranked, and they’re there for a reason. I think that they kept the ball more and maybe played a little bit harder and more committed than I think we did today.”

The Hokies face two tough conference opponents in the next week, with Wake Forest and Duke ahead on Thursday and Sunday, respectively.

“I think it’s a lot in what we do and how we prepare for the games, like this next one, we’re going to have to be playing the hardest we’ve ever played in practice and just come out to battle and do what we’ve been doing best,” Michels said.

“(Having never beaten Wake Forest at Wake) I think it gives us an opportunity, because maybe we didn’t step up to our goal today, but that’s something else to fight for and to keep fighting for.”