Friday, October 2,2009

Kicking To The Top

By Justin Rice

The No. 6-ranked BC Eagles lost to the top-ranked Tar Heels, 2-1. But starting freshman star Kristen Mewis isn't going to let the loss stop her from helping bring BC to the top.

NEWTON — As a little girl growing up in Hanson, Mass., Kristen Mewis’ favorite color was powder blue. But when it came time for the All-American soccer player from Whitman-Hanson Regional High to choose a college, Mewis picked Boston College’s maroon and gold over the famed North Carolina blue.

“They were in my Top 3,” the BC freshman midfielder said of UNC after practice on Wednesday afternoon, a day before the No. 6-ranked Eagles lost to the top-ranked Tar Heels 2-1 in front of 2,000 fans at Newton Soccer Field. “I always watched [UNC] on TV. Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly were like my idols and they both went there. I love the colors and stuff. I liked that they’ve been the best for such a long time. I visited there and loved the campus, it’s a beautiful campus and the coach was awesome.

“UNC, they don’t really recruit people. Players come to them. They don’t have to recruit.”

While playing for the Tar Heels was a more than attainable dream for Mewis, playing against them last night was a nightmare. After BC (9-2) took a 1-0 lead at the 54:58 mark of the second half, UNC (10-0-1) scored two goals on penalty kicks — both after BC was called for hand balls in the box.

While many on the BC side were up in arms that the refs would take a game of that magnitude into their own hands rather than swallowing their whistles, Mewis took the high road. “They deserved the two goals,” she said of the PKs scored by UNC senior forward Casey Nogueira with 15:31 left in the game and by junior midfielder Ali Hawkins with 8:26 remaining. “They played really well but it’s just hard to lose over two hand balls in the box.”

UNC coach Anson Dorrance, who has won 20 national championships, called the match, “One of the most bizarre games I’ve ever been a part of in 33 years of coaching. We think BC is an outstanding team and really earned the right to be up one.”

Mewis’ roommate and teammate on the 2009 Under-20 women’s national team ,freshman forward Victoria DiMartino, scored BC’s loan goal, chipping the ball past UNC senior goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris.

“They’ve done a great job building their program,” said Dorrance, who called BC coach Alison Kulik to congratulate her after she signed Mewis and DiMartino. “We’re banging heads with them recruiting some of the best kids in the country and unquestionably two of the finest freshman in America are starting for BC right now. Not only are they a difficult challenge now but they are going to be a difficult challenge for a long time.”

Said to be the top player in the country in the 2009 recruiting class, Mewis was probably also the most heralded player ever to come out of Massachusetts — that is until her sister Sam, a senior at Whitman-Hanson, chooses between UCLA and Florida State any day now.

“She could’ve gone anywhere she wanted to.” Kulik said of the elder Mewis. “We always do our best to land local talent and we’re very fortunate that she’s a national prospect and we were able to keep her here.

“We’ve seen here playing since she was 13 or 14 and we’ve know she was going to be special come later years. We kept an eye on her.”

Apparently Mewis kept her eye on the Eagles, even while traveling all over the world to play soccer. “BC was the underdog, they were kind of like up and coming and just starting to get good; I love it here,” Mewis said, adding that after she traveled so much she wanted to play close to home.

DiMartino, who leads the Eagles with 11 goals and three assists this season, said the fact that Mewis chose BC over UNC shows her character. “She’s not looking for the easy way out,” said DiMartino, whose older sister, Gina is a senior forward for BC. “She always works extra by herself. It’s good that we’re roommates because we push each other.”

They also like to blow off steam together.

“She likes to dance all the time, I sing she dances,” DiMartino said. “[We like] all different kinds of music, 80s to modern.”

It will take a lot of juking and jiving, however, for the freshman phenoms to forget about last night’s loss. Although BC did take some consolation in the fact that the top team in the land was unable to score a goal within the flow of play and needed two penalty kicks to beat them.

“It was good competition,” said Mewis, who has four goals and five assists in 10 games. “We played really well. It was a pretty equal match. It was good to play against them. We were all excited for the game and we really want to beat them but hopefully we’ll get them next time.”