The Boston University women’s lacrosse team finds itself in a surprising role heading into this weekend: spoiler.
The Terriers (12-4, 4-1 America East) take on the University of New Hampshire (10-5, 4-1) in their final game of the regular season Saturday. Though they can no longer win the America East regular-season title, they can directly control where the conference tournament will be played.
Assuming the University of Maryland-Baltimore County wins its final game of the year Saturday against last-place Binghamton University, the winner of the BU-UNH game will finish tied with UMBC for first place in the conference. If the Wildcats win, they would win the tiebreaker by virtue of their regular-season victory over UMBC, and the tournament would take place in New Hampshire. But if the Terriers win, they would lose the tiebreaker to UMBC, and the tournament would be held in Maryland.
For the Terriers, that quirk gives the team something to play for despite the fact that the league title is all but out of reach.
“I don’t really look at it as second place,” said BU coach Liza Kelly. “I look at it that we control where the championship’s going to be played, and I think that’s still kind of fun. I mean granted, it can’t be at BU, but we control whether it’s at UNH or UMBC, and I’d much rather go into it second than third.”
That won’t be easy, however, as the Wildcats post the toughest league test BU has seen this year. New Hampshire won the conference title in 2004 and 2002, and finished second to the Terriers in 2005 and 2003.
The traditional league power is also home to one of the America East’s best offensive players this season. Attacker Katie Leland ranks second in the conference with 46 goals and 73 points — second to BU’s Jenny Hauser in both categories. Leland is a large reason why UNH leads the league with 13.75 goals per game.
If the Wildcats have a weakness, it’s their defense, which allows just over 10-and-a-half goals per game. Starting goalie Ashley Milley has saved only 47.6 percent of the shots on goal this season, which is a large reason why the Wildcats hold a pedestrian 6-4 out of conference record.
The Terriers are catching UNH at the right time, as Stony Brook University snapped the Wildcats’ nine-game winning streak last Friday. But the loss ultimately proved inconsequential, as UNH remains in control of its own fate with a win Saturday.
