After seeing her squad lose three out of its last four games after opening the season with a five-game win streak, No. 11 Boston University field hockey coach Sally Starr knows what the Terriers must do to turn things back around – score.
“Obviously, we can do a better job scoring goals,” Starr said. “Scoring is definitely an issue we need to get to.”
Over the last four games, BU (6-3) has averaged just 0.75 goals per game, including putting up a goose egg on the scoreboard last Sunday against Old Dominion University.
But with a new weekend comes a new month, two new opponents and a new portion of the schedule. Friday afternoon’s away game versus the University of Vermont marks the first of five in-conference games for the Terriers.
Vermont (4-6) is riding a three-game losing streak, but Starr is certainly not sleeping on the Catamounts.
“I’m really anticipating Vermont,” Starr said. “Regardless of the schedule, regardless of the type of year they’re having, they’re always a very, very competitive team.”
Just over a month old, this season still has a month to go before the regular season wraps up, and Starr espoused the importance of staying in shape throughout the fall.
“You don’t want to lose your fitness as the season goes on,” Starr said, adding that the team usually designates one day a week to working on “overall fitness.”
This preparation will especially come in handy on Friday.
“They play hard for 70 minutes so we need to be out there ready to compete and we have to be ready to do a better job of maximizing our scoring opportunities,” Starr said.
Getting the most out of scoring chances was a problem last Sunday as the team didn’t produce a goal despite 16 shots, leading offense to be one of the focuses at practice this week for the Terriers.
“We need to work on goal-scoring and penalty-corner execution,” Starr said.
All things considered, Starr is happy with the team’s overall performance and is staying positive despite the team’s recent troubles.
“We need to just reinforce things we are doing well,” Starr said. “We did a lot of things right. We haven’t been outplayed in any of the games we’ve lost.”
After playing Vermont Friday, the Terriers will travel more than 700 miles south to Durham, N.C. for a Sunday afternoon affair with Duke University (5-5).
Starr spoke very highly of the Blue Devils, who also fell to Old Dominion in September.
“Duke is one of the premier programs in the country,” Starr said. “Year after year, they’re a team that’s always in the NCAA tournament. They’re a team that’s always competing for a national championship. To me, that gives us, as a program, an opportunity to play another really quality opponent.”
Starr stressed the importance of these two games as the team enters the second half of the season and attempts to start racking up the wins again.
“We’re looking for a successful weekend,” Starr said. “A conference game, on the road, is a huge game for us. [Duke] on Sunday is a huge national game for us.”
Despite the travel and tough opponents, Starr is not conceding any part of the weekend, and made it clear what the team needs to do.
The Terriers need to “take advantage of our scoring opportunities, and play the type of hockey that we’re capable of playing,” Starr said. “We need to play a style of hockey that’s high energy, high tempo. To be really successful this weekend, I’d like to come home with two wins.”
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