The University of Miami's women soccer team slogged through a brutal nonconference schedule, going 5-4 and earning a degree of optimism for the remainder of the season.

The Hurricanes' reward for their early work: An even more perilous Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, which began with Thursday's home match against Boston College, the nation's sixth-ranked team.

The Hurricanes controlled the midfield but struggled in the offensive end, and Boston College capitalized on its few opportunities for a 2-0 victory at Cobb Stadium.

The Eagles got two goals in a span of four minutes -- Victoria DiMartino in the 33rd minute and Kristen Mewis in the 37th -- to decide the game.

``That's the difference in the ACC,'' UM coach Tricia Taliaferro said. ``The good teams will be able to expose the little things. Boston College finished us off in those four minutes.''

It won't get any easier to the Hurricanes. Boston College 9-0-0 (1-0-0), which has outscored its opposition 34-1 on the season, is just one of six ACC teams in the top 25. UM's next two matches are against No. 18 Maryland on Sunday and at No. 5 Florida State on Oct. 4.

Looming down the road: a home showdown against No. 1 North Carolina on Oct. 25.

The good news for the Hurricanes (5-5-0, 0-1-0) is they could lose to all of those teams, and still return to the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

The strength of the ACC all but guarantees seven, if not eight, teams from the conference a spot, and so matches against teams such as Clemson, Duke and Virginia Tech will have the biggest impact on their postseason fate.

``Every game in the ACC is going to be a battle,'' said midfielder Brittney Steinbruch.

-- ADAM H. BEASLEY

• Florida Southern 2, Nova Southeastern 0: Host Nova (4-3-0, 1-2-0 Sunshine State Conference) lost to Florida Southern (5-4-0, 2-1-0) despite holding a 16-13 advantage in shots and 7-2 edge in corner kicks.

VOLLEYBALL

• Nova Southeastern: Setter Valia Petrova became Nova's career assists leader in a victory over visiting Palm Beach Atlantic. Petrova finished with 41 assists, giving her 3,330 and breaking Lindsey Metts' school record of 3,302 set from 2000 to '03.

JAI ALAI

The Dania Jai-Alai Fronton will hold a youth Jai-Alai clinic Saturday and Sunday morning. Children ages 10 to 16 are invited to participate in the free clinic. Led by retired Jai-Alai player Benny Bueno, the event will teach youngsters the basics of Jai-Alai.

For information, contact Bueno at 954-927-2841 extension 241 or at bbueno@betdania.com.

-- SANTOS A. PEREZ

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@