Strong first half buoys Terriers in win over Harvard

The No. 11/12 Boston University lacrosse team crushed Harvard University in the first half of its Wednesday afternoon game, aided by explosive scoring and solid goaltending in a decisive 13-9 victory.

With strong defensive support, the Terrier attack racked up a 5-0 lead early, before Harvard’s star freshman Jen VanderMeulen responded with 10 minutes left in the first half.

BU headed into halftime with a 7-1 lead, doubling Harvard’s shot attempts and beating them to ground balls. The team showed effective transitioning and good ball control in its attack.

“We wanted to come out strong from the bat,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to against Vanderbilt [University], and our goal for this week was to really take it to Harvard from the very first draw, get it and attack, attack, attack.”

Forty-six seconds into the first half, the Terriers continued to show their offensive strength with senior co-captain McKinley Curro’s fourth assisted goal to freshman midfielder Kristen Mogavero.

However, defensive breakdowns a few minutes later led to four unanswered goals from Harvard. Robertshaw said she believed the breakdowns were due to a lack of focus after such a strong early lead. After Harvard’s fourth unanswered goal, BU called a timeout.

“It was just to remind us that we had this game and needed to go hard the entire time,” Curro said. “We can’t think of a game being over in a half, we have another 30 minutes to fight so we need to go out there and do it.”

After the timeout, senior co-captain goalkeeper Rachel Klein came up with a huge save and senior attacker Jenny Taft scored her career-high third goal on a free-position shot.

“I think that Rachel has that ability to calm the team down very well and that’s something we look to in her,” Robertshaw said. “We don’t want to put teams on the free-position line, but we know with Rachel, she can make those saves.”

I think it was calming when the attackers take those hard shots and put the ball in the back of the net . . . that also reassures people.”

BU dominated most of the second half with an especially strong push from Curro, who finished with three goals and four assists. The team finished 5-of-7 on free-position shots, which Robertshaw said they drilled during practice.

“Today we needed [Curro] to step up and she did it,” Robertshaw said. “I think it shows that she wanted the win, she wanted to lead as a senior, and I think she did that very well today.”

Harvard did score twice in the 59th minute, but senior co-captain Traci Landy finished off the game with her second goal in the final 10 seconds.
Overall, strong defense supported the team tremendously, especially in holding back VanderMeuler.

“[Junior midfielder] Corcoran Downey played a just phenomenal game,” Robertshaw said. “Holding [VanderMeuler], and I know there is four goals in there but the primary out of nine, that’s their big attacker. It was a lot of sliding. A lot of Corcoran playing well, that was the game plan, and that’s why we put Corcoran on her because she is strong.

“[VanderMeuler] is physically strong, a great freshman for them. She’s going to do big things for Harvard and for Corcoran to play the kind of game she did, it was big.”

Klein stepped up in net with 12 saves and a strong foundation for the defense.

“Our defense has done really well so far this season,” Klein said. “We are feeling confident and taking those risks, and I’m pushing them to take those risks. They know that if they don’t get the interception [or] the knockdown someone else will have the slide or I’ll have to save to have their back.”

Robertshaw hopes for the defense to stay assertive when they take on Notre Dame University this Saturday at Nickerson Field.

“Notre Dame is a huge, fast, aggressive, feisty team that’s going to take it to us,” Robertshaw said. “We have to be ready to run, we have to be ready to put the ball in the back of the net. . . . We can’t sit back and try to defend Notre Dame.”