Ideally, playing a highly ranked team will yield an impressive win, one that can propel a team up the national rankings and give it confidence moving forward.
Failing that, the idea is at least to learn something in defeat, which is something Boston University field hockey coach Sally Starr said her team accomplished in its 2–0 loss to No. 2 Syracuse on Sunday.
“In the second half, I really feel that our fitness let us down, quite honestly,” Starr said. “I think that Syracuse outworked us in the second half. You could really see us getting tired and really trying to cycle our strikers on a little bit of a shorter shift, and really beginning to plant our feet on some tackles – that’s a sure sign that your fitness is breaking down.”
Syracuse’s first goal came on a second chance after a corner, but its second was brought about by a defensive lapse Starr attributed to fatigue.
After 58 minutes of scoreless play, in which the Terrier defense protected the goal well, Syracuse’s goals came less than a minute apart in the second half and seemed to deflate BU.
While both teams had four shots on goal in the first half, Syracuse pulled away in the second, recording seven to BU’s two. Even so, the game was anyone’s to take well into the second half, which continues to build the Terriers’ case for an NCAA tournament bid even without the possibility of an automatic America East spot.
After beating No. 17 Boston College, on Friday and losing to the Orange today, the No. 12 Terriers are starting to get a better idea of where they fit into the national scene.
“Going into this game today, I really felt it would either be a great win for us, or at this point in the season, early September, it would give us an opportunity to see where we really need to continue doing a lot of work,” Starr said. “So fitness is definitely an area where we need to continue to do a lot of work for us to compete against a Final Four team.”
The Terriers’ early-season slate will continue to challenge them, as they face No. 19 University of Massachusetts, No. 6 University of Virginia and No. 7 University of Connecticut before this month is done.
Between Sunday and Friday, when they face unranked College of William and Mary, they’ll have five days to bolster the weak spots Starr saw against Syracuse.
Starr did praise the team’s effort and its decision-making in the first half and said she was pleased with her defenders’ work in preventing Syracuse from earning penalty corners.
The Orange have had 35 corners in five games, allowing their opponents just 20, and BU held them to five on Sunday — only one in the first half.
In general, it wasn’t effort or skill that failed the Terriers, and Starr said she’s looking at the upsides of their performance as well as looking to improve the problem areas.
“The positive that we take out of this is that we can play with a team like this,” Starr said. “We just need to sustain it for 70 minutes. We were able to do it for 35, maybe 40, 45, but we definitely didn’t do it for 70.”
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