Lacrosse moves to 3-0 in AE with win over UMBC

All season long, the No. 17 Boston University lacrosse team has been talking about America East conference play.

After dropping five of their first six games to ranked opponents, they were just looking forward to playing in conference. When the team dropped below the .500 mark for the first time this season after a 17-11 loss to then-No. 8/9 Syracuse University, it didn’t matter because five of their remaining six games were against conference opponents, and that’s the part of the schedule that really matters.

After Saturday’s 12-8 road win over University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the Terriers (7-6, 3-0) have proven that regardless of their early-season struggles, they can still dominate when it truly means something to them.

“It feels great,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “The girls have done a good job of playing hard and securing those three victories. It’s nice to get back to winning and knowing what that feels like, so we feel really good.”

BU was able to maintain that undefeated status in AE by sprinting past UMBC (9-5, 2-2) in the game’s early going. Before the Retrievers could even get settled on their own field, the Terriers had already scored six goals over the first 10:46 en route to a 9-4 lead heading into the second half.

What’s even more amazing than the Terriers’ fast start was the fact that six different Terriers tallied those half a dozen goals. As the coach of a team that has relied on senior attackers Traci Landy (35 goals) and McKinley Curro (28 goals) for over half of its scoring, Robertshaw was pleased to see her team spread the scoring around.

“I think it’s important that that many people scored,” Robertshaw said. “It shows that everyone’s getting more comfortable going to cage, and we’re seeing more people do that than ever, which is nice. It was just great to see our attack play that way. They played up to their potential.

“Next to the [University of New Hampshire] game [where BU scored seven goals in the second half,] it’s one of the best halves that I’ve seen from our attack all season, which is awesome.”

Landy, Curro, senior attacker Xan Weitzel, junior midfielder Corcoran Downey, sophomore attacker Hannah Frey and freshman attacker Danielle Etrasco notched those first six goals for the Terriers. Downey’s goal was just her second of the season, giving even more credence to Robertshaw’s point about her players being more comfortable attacking the net in the offensive zone.

However, the depth in scoring lasted only so long for the Terriers as Landy netted four of the team’s remaining six goals in the contest, extending her team lead in that category.

The Terriers needed those four tallies from Landy, though, as UMBC stormed back with a 5-0 run that began at the end of the first half and extended well into the second. With only 11:30 left in the game, a goal by sophomore midfielder Bria Phillips closed the BU lead to only two at 9-7.

“It’s something that we’re working on,” Robertshaw said of her team’s struggles with opposing team’s runs. “We’ve addressed it as a team and as a staff. It’s something we’re going to be looking to try and fix in practice and just work on our mental game so that we don’t let up those lulls.”

With her team’s lead shrinking, Robertshaw found the perfect stopper in a timeout that not only killed UMBC’s momentum but also allowed BU to gather itself again for one final push. The Terriers scored three of the game’s final four goals to seal the 12-8 victory.

The Terriers are now hoping to use all of this momentum gained through conference play to their advantage in their final non-conference game on the schedule, a home game against Boston College on Wednesday.

“I think these past couple games have prepared us well for BC,” Robertshaw said. “I’m hoping that our attackers really take the kind of play we’ve seen both at UNH and in the first half against UMBC and really bring that to the BC game. I think it’s going to be an exciting game. I think it’s going to be a fast-paced and really high-scoring game.”