Lacrosse, Sports

Lacrosse falls to Cornell in hard-fought loss

Despite 12 combined points from senior attack Danielle Etrasco and senior midfielder Kristen Mogavero, the Boston University women’s lacrosse team was unable to get the tying goal in the final minutes of play and fell to Cornell University, 18-17, Saturday afternoon in Ithaca, N.Y.

The Terriers (6-9, 2-4 America East) and the Big Red (10-5) traded goals throughout the contest, as neither team could muster an offensive run to put the other team away.

“It was a great battle between two good teams that really wanted it,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “It was Cornell’s senior game, and they came full force and were really aggressive against us like I thought they would, and I thought our team responded well.

“It was a back-and-forth game, highly offensive as you could see by the scoreboard, and that’s something that I’m proud of. The girls took some great chances and we created a lot of opportunities … I was really happy with our fight.”

The Terriers got off to a great start when Etrasco won the opening draw and scored 14 seconds into the game to give BU a 1-0 lead. Cornell scored the next two goals, but BU answered with scores from freshman midfielder Sofia Robins and sophomore attack Lindsay Weiner to give the Terriers a 3-2 lead with 25 minutes remaining in the half.

Cornell responded with a three-goal run, but junior attack Elizabeth Morse scored off an assist from Etrasco to cut the deficit to one. Both teams then traded trade goals to maintain the one-goal lead for the Big Red.

With about 18 minutes left in the first half, Robertshaw decided to pull junior goalkeeper Christina Sheridan and replace her with senior goalkeeper Kim Elsworth, who played for the rest of the game.

“I was just watching and I didn’t feel that Sheridan was seeing the shots that were coming at her,” Robertshaw said. “Like I said all year, I’ve felt very confident about the play of Kim Elsworth all year long, and I wanted to give Kim a shot and see if we could change it up. We needed a momentum change and she did that for us.”

Cornell scored two straight goals to go up 8-5 with 17 minutes left in the frame, but the Terriers went on a four-goal run over the next four minutes to give themselves a 9-8 lead.

The teams entered halftime tied, 12-12.

The Big Red scored first to kick off the second half, but BU once again responded with a score from Etrasco to tie the game at 13.

After Cornell converted a free-position shot to give the Big Red a 14-13 advantage, the Terriers scored three consecutive goals for a 16-14 lead with 16 minutes left.

However, Cornell answered with a four-goal run of its own to go up 18-16 with 2:16 remaining.

While junior midfielder Sydney Godett scored to cut the deficit to one with 1:17 to go, BU could not score the tying goal and fell, 18-17.

Mogavero was huge for the Terriers, tying a career-high with five goals in the game. Godett was also impressive, setting a career-high with her hat trick.

Elsworth was solid in net for BU, recording five saves and only allowing 10 goals in 47 minutes of play.

Despite the tough loss, Robertshaw said her team is looking forward to its final game of the season, a Saturday night matchup against Duke University.

“I don’t think it’s too hard to move on … because we have one game left in the season,” Robertshaw said. “We’ve talked to the girls about having no regrets and finishing the way that we want to finish.

“And although we didn’t get the ‘W’ [Saturday], I think if we played the earlier half of our season the way we played yesterday, we would have at least five or six more wins on our schedule right now, because I think they played well and fought hard.”

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