The No. 17 Boston University field hockey team’s 2011 season ended in disappointment when it lost the America East Conference title game to the No. 11 University of New Hampshire. Despite a strong and experienced defensive line, the Terriers (11-9, 4-1 America East) were unable to achieve their original goal of winning the America East and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.
Despite its national ranking, the team’s loss to UNH (17-4, 4-1, America East) and failure to win the conference title meant that the Terriers were not among the 16 teams to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
Ending the season with the highest ranking of all Massachusetts teams, the Terriers’ nine losses all came at the hands of opponents that were ranked among the top 17 in the nation by the end of the season.
Throughout the season BU kept up with – and at times managed to defeat – high-ranking teams like the University at Albany.
BU coach Sally Starr highlighted the overtime victory against Albany as one of the most significant moments of the season. In double overtime, senior fullback Kate Murphy scored the winning goal for the Terriers, knocking the ball between the legs of Albany goaltender Kristi Troch.
Starr further praised Murphy’s strong defensive play, citing her role as an integral part of “the experienced back field” that played a key role in the Terriers’ successes this season.
Throughout the season, Starr praised the strength of BU’s defense, stressing the importance of a strong defense for a team that continuously struggled with getting the ball in the goal. Alongside rookie goaltender Valentina Cerda, who was named America East Co-Rookie of the Year, and junior Jacinda McLeod, the conference Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row, Murphy helped bolster the Terrier defense.
While BU’s defense performed well throughout most of the season, it was in many ways an uphill climb for the team’s offense, which spent much of the season working on strengthening their attack and racking up goals.
“We really worked hard and improved, and I think our attack penalty corners were also one of our strengths,” Starr said. “Being at Harvard [where the team practiced and played home games] really allowed us to practice that much more than we were able to do in the past. And I think our attack penalty corner, once again, was outstanding.”
The Terriers had 132 attack penalty corners to their opponents’ 124, and in the final stretches of the season scored multiple key goals on attack penalty corners.
Though the offense did struggle for the most part, junior midfielder Macey Gaumond did manage to lead the Terriers with 10 goals.
This offense was out in full force during the first game of the America East Tournament, when the Terriers defeated the University of Maine 4-0 to advance to the title round. Though it ultimately failed to win the conference championship, Starr was very impressed with the team’s play in the final game.
“I really think – as much as anything – we were unlucky this year,” Starr said. “There were circumstances out of our control that really created obstacles that were tough to overcome.”
On multiple occasions, the team was forced to play on little to no rest, and this physical exhaustion affected the team greatly. The night before the championship game against UNH, the fire alarm at the team’s hotel went off and the athletes were forced to wait outside for almost an hour before being allowed to return to their rooms.
Though the season was filled with impressive victories and marked by strong team bonds, Starr was ultimately unsatisfied with how it ended. The team’s goal from the start had been to win the America East and qualify for the NCAA Tournament, neither of which they achieved, despite coming so close.
“I’m really disappointed for our girls. I’m really disappointed for our seniors,” Starr said. “I wish we could have found a way to get it done on Sunday, but we did not play well.
“It’s really hard, after a week like this. It’s really difficult to end a season on that type of a loss.”
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Greta example of why rankings mean nothing and RPI means everything. BU’s was right above #20, NU was 12…of course they got in.