Led by sophomore midfielder Hannah Frey’s career-high four goals, the No. 12 Boston University lacrosse team erased a 4-3 halftime deficit to defeat Brown University, 9-5, in the team’s home opener at Nickerson Field yesterday.
Frey, who did not see any action in the Terriers’ (2-0) opening win against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Feb. 24 due to injury, got the most out of her playing time against Brown (1-1).
Her first of the night gave BU a one-goal lead at 3-2 with only four minutes to go in the first half. But the Bears took advantage of two free-position shots in the remaining minutes, including one with only 16 seconds left, to give themselves the advantage heading into the break.
The Terriers responded with six unanswered goals, including three by Frey, over the first 12 minutes of the second frame to finally put the game well out of the Bears’ reach.
BU coach Liz Robertshaw said she knew that Frey, a unanimous selection to last year’s America East All-Rookie Team, was capable of such production &- it was just a matter of getting her in the lineup.
“It was just a small tweak, but the trainers decided to keep her out of last week’s game, which I know she was really disappointed about,” Robertshaw said. “She had a really great preseason for us this year, and to be honest, what she did today was exactly what she had done all preseason. She was definitely excited to get back in the lineup today, and that showed.”
It was not only Frey, who added an assist for a game-high five points, but the entire BU attack that keyed the second-half comeback.
Senior attacker Xan Weitzel (one goal, two assists) scored all three of her points in the second half, including an assist on junior midfielder Rachel Collins’ game-tying blast 55 seconds into the stanza. Senior attacker Traci Landy added a goal and an assist to aid the surge, in addition to a first-half goal, for three points of her own.
The team went from scoring only three times on 10 shots on goal in the first half to six scores on eight chances in the second, including scores on the first three shots of the latter period.
“We just needed to refocus at halftime and think about doing a better job attacking,” Robertshaw said of the second-half comeback. “After that, we had a much more aggressive offensive attack and had more confidence in ourselves in the second half. Then we did a good job of putting it in the net to get the win.”
In the first half, senior goalkeeper Rachel Klein couldn’t keep the ball out of her own net &- the Bears scored on all four shots on goal in the first.
But the senior quickly returned to the form that won her last week’s America East Defender of the Week, stopping five of Brown’s six shots in the second. Klein made several of those second-half saves below her knees, a vast improvement over her first-half performance, which saw two of the four goals squeak between her legs.
“Rachel was thrown off by one of the early goals that went off a stick, and she didn’t really rebound from that in the first,” Robertshaw said. “But once she started taking some shots from her assistant coach at halftime, she really settled down and seemed more confident in the second. It seemed like a whole new game for her in the second.”
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