Lacrosse, Sports

Women’s lacrosse fends off Holy Cross

In its first home game of the season, the Boston University women’s lacrosse team took on College of the Holy Cross at Nickerson Field on Wednesday evening.

The Terriers (2-5, 2-0 Patriot League) remained perfect in Patriot League play as they defeated the Crusaders (4-6, 2-1 Patriot League) by a score of 8-6.

BU won the draw to start the game and immediately capitalized when senior midfielder Becca Church scored less than two minutes in to give the Terriers a 1-0 lead.

However, Holy Cross would respond just minutes later. Attack Kaitlin Concilio put one past freshman goalkeeper Caroline Meegan to tie the game at one at the 24:23 mark in the first half.

Play became somewhat stagnant, as the two teams exchanged fouls and possession multiple times. The Crusaders took their first lead of the game, when midfielder Laura Ryan scored her 14th goal of the season with 16:38 left in the half.

After the goal, BU’s play and intensity picked up, as the team began to force turnovers and take better shots. The Terriers then tied the game back up just five minutes later off a goal from junior attacker Kelsey Marafioti.

At the 5:49 mark, BU regained the lead when sophomore midfielder Ally Adams scored her second goal of the year to give the Terriers a 3-2 advantage. Neither team could find the net for the remainder of the half and BU went into the break up by one.

To start the second, the Terriers won the draw again. BU came out firing, taking four shots before the Crusaders could even attempt a shot of their own.

On its fifth shot of the half, BU finally put one to the back of the net with a goal from sophomore midfielder Jill Horka. It was her fifth goal on the year, and it gave the Terriers a 4-2 lead with 25:50 remaining.

The Terriers extended their lead to three goals just five minutes later with a free-position goal off the stick of Church and Holy Cross then called with a timeout.

Church responded after the timeout by completing the first hat trick of her career, giving BU a four-goal lead with 17:45 to go in the second.

BU coach Liz Robertshaw said she was happy with Church’s performance, but said she would have liked to have seen other players step up on the offensive end.

“[Church] did a good job of going to cage,” Robertshaw said. “I guess, from an attacking standpoint, she’s a ‘middy’. So for us, I think that’s asking a lot of our middies. I think we were led by both Becca Church and Jill Horka, in terms of scoring, and they’re both middies, so our attackers need to step up.”

Moments later, BU scored again, as Marafioti notched her second goal of the game off an assist from junior attack Lindsey Weiner, her ninth of the season. The goal extended the BU lead to 7-2.

The game was far from over though, and Holy Cross came roaring back with four straight goals, highlighted by two tallies from Ryan, cutting BU’s lead to 7-6 with just over eight minutes left in the contest.

However, BU remained calm under pressure, answering just moments later with Horka’s second goal of the game to make it 8-6, securing the win.

Even though the Crusaders made it close at the end, Robertshaw said she was thrilled with how her defense performed to wrap up the victory.

“I think defensively, we had some huge defensive saves, some good plays,” said Robertshaw. “[Meegan] made some point-blank saves which was great. Just defensively, they locked down and followed the game plan, which was what gave us the win.”

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