Sept. 22, 2006

The George Mason women's soccer team will begin Colonial Athletic Association play on Friday evening when the Patriots take on Northeastern in Boston in a match between two teams looking to rebound from shutout losses.

Northeastern was beaten 2-0 the last time the Huskies played, on Sunday. That loss came to 11th-ranked Penn State. Northeastern's only other loss came on Sept. 2 at 10th-ranked Boston College, 4-0. Northeastern hasn't won its last two times out after a 4-1 start as the Huskies are 0-1-1 in their past two contests.

The Patriots also got off to a good start this season as they opened the season 3-1-1 but they fell to 25th-ranked Georgia, 4-0, then dropped back-to-back 1-0 games to Navy and Maryland. The Patriots have not scored for more than 300 minutes now.

Mason's most effective offensive threat this season has been Rachel Wiggins, who opened the year with a point in the first five games, the fifth-longest streak in school history. She has four goals and two assists on the season. Northeastern has three goals from Liza Rebello and three from Kristin Kowalik, who also has an assist.

Both teams also have similar numbers in goal. Mason starter Kasey Davenport has stopped 46 shots and has saves on 82 percent of the shots she's faced, playing in net for all but 34:14 of Mason's 740 minutes. Annie Petrofsky has played all 650 minutes for Northeastern, stopping 44 shots and making save on nearly 85 percent of the shots she's faced.

The two teams have met just once, last season, when Mason took a 6-5 overtime win in Fairfax in a torrential rain storm. In that match, Wiggins had two goals and an assist, and Laura Salich and Nilani Duarte also had goals. The Huskies and Patriots alternated goals in that contest with Northeastern scoring first and Mason scoring last to force overtime. The Patriots broke that pattern on Duarte's game-winner just 3:28 into overtime. Northeastern got goals from five different players in the match and all five return to the team this year.

Game time against Northeastern is set for 6 p.m.