The Boston University women’s lacrosse team was back in action Wednesday afternoon against the University at Albany, but thanks in large part to the potent offense of the Great Danes (7-4, 2-1 America East) and the defensive struggles of the Terriers (3-6, 0-2 America East), BU fell 17-9.
“Defensively we were rattled,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “We didn’t have [junior defender] Christie Hart in there, who is one of our defensive leaders, and that took a toll on us.”
Over the past few games, defense has been a point of weakness for the Terriers, and teams are beginning to expose it. In its previous matchup against Harvard, BU allowed the Crimson (2-6) to take a 6-0 lead to open the game before the Terriers even got on the scoreboard.
“We had breakdowns and we didn’t recover,” Robertshaw said. “In the Harvard game, we started off with defensive breakdowns and clawed our way back.”
Despite giving up the first goal of the game to the Great Danes, BU had a much better start than it did in the Harvard game, scoring three goals in the first 11 minutes of play.
However, the Terrier defense quickly fell out of sync, leaving junior goalkeeper Christina Sheridan scrambling to make difficult saves as Albany went on a six-goal run.
“We started to miss marks and not play good one-on-one defense,” Robertshaw said. “Because of that, it got Christina Sheridan a little jammed up in cage trying to make saves rather than doing what she does very well, which is seeing the ball and getting saves that she can get.”
In the first half of the game, Sheridan was left guessing on several shots, making just two saves and allowing 12 goals.
In the second half, she came out and was able to tighten up her hold on the net, recording seven saves while only allowing five goals.
“For the first eight minutes of the game, we were only playing defense,” Robertshaw said.
During this time in the first half, the Great Danes still knifed through the Terriers’ defensive zone and created scoring opportunities, but BU cut down their attack on several occasions, forcing six turnovers in the first half.
In the second half, as the sense of urgency rose on the defense for the Terriers, the Great Danes committed eight turnovers.
In its previous game against Harvard, the defense again forced turnovers as the Crimson committed 16 in the contest, but BU had issues capitalizing offensively.
Coming out of the locker room in the second half, the Terriers’ defense was solid, giving up only five goals in the final frame, but their offense was stagnant as they went on a nearly 21-minute scoring drought.
This season, the Terriers have performed much better in the first half than in the second half.
So far, BU has been outscored 51-39 in the second half, whereas they have kept games close in the first period, only trailing by a 54-48 margin.
The Terriers have also had trouble limiting opponents around the cage, as they have been outshot 199-157. Against the Great Danes, BU was outshot 29-22.
As opponents continue to be aggressive with the Terriers’ defense, BU’s foul totals continue to climb, creating many free-position shot opportunities for the opposition. Against Albany, the Terriers committed 32 fouls compared to the Great Danes’ 22. This translated to six free-position shot opportunities for Albany, which led to four goals.
“There seemed to be miscommunication on the crease, as well as on who was marking who, and that led to openings,” Robertshaw said.
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