After falling in a tough contest to No. 8 University of New Hampshire, the No. 15 Boston University field hockey team will travel to Storrs, Conn. to take on the No. 4 University of Connecticut Huskies at 7 p.m. tonight.
The Terriers (8-6, 2-1 America East) lost their chance to take sole possession of first place atop the America East Conference, leaving the uncontested spot to the UNH Wildcats, who are now 13-3. BU, however, went down with a fight, losing by just one goal in the 4-3 outcome and taking the Wildcats to overtime.
“In the first half, we were playing to three-quarters of our potential, but we were still able to stay pretty even,” said BU coach Sally Starr. “In the second half, we had more passion and energy and we were more effective.”
Due to inclement weather, the Terriers were forced to postpone the second half of the game after falling behind UNH 2-1 in the first half. Junior forward/midfielder Tabi Hatch scored the lone goal Friday off an assist from sophomore fullback Amira Downes, her first assist of the season. Hatch’s goal is her fifth tally this year.
Returning to the game Monday at Newton Campus Field, the Terriers tied the score with a goal by junior fullback Jacinda McLeod, which came off a corner insert by junior midfielder Macey Gaumond and a stick-stop by sophomore forward Ysi Schieb.
After senior forward Andrea Greene scored on a pass from fellow senior captain Kate Murphy, the Terriers forced UNH into overtime, tied at 3-3. With only a minute left in overtime, the Wildcats ended the contest on a goal from forward Whitney Frates.
Trying to put the loss behind them, the Terriers are regrouping to face nonconference opponents UConn tonight. The Huskies (12-1) suffered their only loss to No. 11 Boston College at home. In their weekend 3-1 defeat of Princeton, sophomore forward Anne Jeute scored two goals and senior fullback Rayell Heistand scored the third, continuing the team’s season-high seven-game win streak.
“Connecticut is constantly a top-four team and they’re athletic, aggressive, fast, technically and tactically very good,” Starr said.
Two-time Big East Conference Offensive Player of the Week Chloe Hunnable, a freshman from Chelmsford, England, leads the Huskies with 12 goals, four assists and 49 shots. She is followed close behind by sophomore forward/midfielder Marie Elena Bolles, who has eight goals, 12 assists and 25 shots this season.
Sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Mansfield is ranked fifth in goals-against average, just one spot ahead of BU’s freshman goalkeeper Valentina Cerda. She has had a total of 12 goals scored on her, compared to 49 saves. The Huskies are ranked third in the NCAA in winning percentage and goals-against average. As a team, they have 51 goals this season and 219 shots, 125 coming in the first half and 93 coming in the second half. But that does not mean the Terriers will lose their focus in the second half of the game.
“We need to be ready from the beginning and play hard for 70 minutes,” Starr said, attributing UConn’s lack of second-half scoring to possible substitutions.
“[Monday] we had a quality attack, scoring and corners and we’ve been executing great shots on goal,” Starr said. “If we can score one out of six penalty corners, that’s pretty good.”
The Terriers have 36 goals and 200 shots. They lead UConn in saves with 72, but BU has taken 82 penalty corners, a number significantly lower than UConn’s 103.
Gaumond maintains her position as leading scorer for the Terriers with eight goals, one assist and 33 shots, while Hatch comes up second with five goals, three assists and 19 shots.
At this time last year, the Terriers and Huskies maintained the same No. 15 and No. 4 spots as this year, yet Starr does not believe they are the same teams.
“We are better than we were last year,” Starr said. “We played to our full potential [Monday] afternoon. If we can play like we did that afternoon, then we are better than last year.”
The score of last year’s match was 3-0, with UConn’s first goal coming in the first half and the latter two coming in the second half. The Huskies had seven shots and three corners in the first seven minutes of the game.
Jeute scored two goals and junior Alicia Angelini earned the third tally. The Huskies outshot the Terriers 18-7 and earned a total of eight penalty corners compared to three earned by BU. Junior goalkeeper Julie Collins made seven saves against the Huskies and Greene led the team in shots with four, all of them on goal.
“They play hard and compete hard and we need to match that,” Starr said. “They have a high work rate and are competing every moment. If you make a mistake, they make you pay. We need to be on our A-game.”
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