Now that we are officially wrapping up our second week of the semester, we can now begin to get a better idea on the kind of seasons we can expect from our UMass Boston fall sports teams. This week we are going to check in on both the men and women’s soccer teams.
Men’s Soccer
In 2019, the UMass Boston men’s soccer team had a great regular season, but their postseason hopes were squandered in the Little East Conference quarterfinals when Western Connecticut State University defeated UMass Boston in a penalty shootout.
So far this season, UMass Boston has gotten out to a solid start, going 3–1 with their only loss coming by a slim one goal margin to SUNY Oneonta. UMass Boston’s first LEC matchup will come on Sept. 18 when they play Eastern Connecticut State University. Historically, UMass Boston has had their struggles beating ECSU as they haven’t defeated Eastern since 2016.
Although they are off to a good start, it would be tough to call the UMass Boston men’s soccer team the favorites to win the conference until they show they can beat the teams that have dominated in the past few seasons, like ECSU and Keene State. If UMass Boston can pull out a win this weekend against ECSU, then it would be a safe bet to say that the Beacons could be considered to be a favorite to win the LEC.
Women’s Soccer
In 2019, the UMass Boston women’s soccer team was a force to be reckoned with as they won the Little East Conference championship by a score of 4–0. However, that was two years ago. This year, the Beacons have come out with a very strong start, having not lost a single game through four games. The only team they haven’t beaten thus far was Endicott College due to the fact that the game ended in a 1–1 draw after double overtime.
The Beacons first LEC matchup will come Saturday, Sept. 18 when they face off against the 2–1 Eastern Connecticut State University. I expect this to be a matchup that favors UMass Boston as ECSU hasn’t defeated the Beacons since October of 2018. ESCU also played an abbreviated season in 2020 where they finished with a sub .500 record.
It will be a lot easier to gauge the season once UMass Boston plays their first conference game. I would be willing to say that the UMass Boston women’s soccer team should be the early favorite to win the LEC. However, they need to show that they can still dominate in their division. That all starts this weekend when they truly begin to defend their conference title against ECSU.
Going into the season, one could argue that UMass Boston could be at a slight disadvantage considering they haven’t played competitively since 2019, when a lot of their competition played an abbreviated season a year ago. Well, if there was any sort of disadvantage, the Beacons have battled through tremendously because both of these teams have come out of the gate playing well. However, it obviously has been quite a long time since these two teams have had a full season, so it will be very interesting to see how the rest of their seasons play out.