Lacrosse, Sports

Women’s lacrosse tries to recover as it battles Dartmouth

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Sophomore goalkeeper Caroline Meegan made a career-high 15 saves last time out against UMass Amherst. PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University women’s lacrosse team will look to start a new winning streak when it takes on Dartmouth College at New Balance Field on Wednesday.

The Terriers (1-2) started off strong but faltered late in their game against the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Saturday. Senior attack Jenna Boarman got the scoring started for the Terriers with an unassisted goal with 17:46 left in the half. Fellow senior attack Lindsay Weiner would later give the Terriers a short-lived 2-1 lead off a feed from junior midfielder Jill Horka. Sophomore goalkeeper Caroline Meegan also had a career-high 15 saves in the contest.

BU coach Liz Robertshaw said she was impressed with Meegan’s improvement, but acknowledged that there is room for her to grow.

“We work with her every single day and try to get her game better and better,” she said. “She personally felt like she did some things well, but as we watched video, there were times when she knew she made a mistake. When you have a goaltender that isn’t settled with how her game is right now, she’s bound to get better.”

The Terriers will look to improve both offensively and defensively against the Big Green (0-2), as they were plagued by eight turnovers in both frames against the Minutemen (5-0). On the offensive side, they only fielded four ground balls in the first half and 10 in the entire game. They were also outshot by a nine shot margin at 27-18.

“We just looked internally this past week at things that we as a team can do better,” Robertshaw said. “We spent time, looked at our offense and things we were doing well in the preseason and aren’t necessarily showing well yet in our games. Defensively, I thought we did well. UMass is a strong team, and we held them to seven points. We want to make sure we continue to give a solid defensive effort. The biggest thing for us is to regroup and identify what we think we’re good at and bring that to the field for 60 minutes.”

The Terriers will be contending with a Big Green squad that hasn’t won a game in 2015, but has a strong record against the Terriers. Dartmouth has won each of the last three meetings between the teams, winning two games in Boston and one in Hanover, New Hampshire by an average margin of 4.67 goals.

Junior Jaclyn Leto has carried the team through its first two games, leading the Big Green in goals with 11 on the season. She scored four in the team’s last matchup against the University of Florida Saturday. Attack Sarah Byrne is next on the Big Green in scoring with three goals.

“They’re being led by Sarah Byrne and Jaclyn Leto,” Robertshaw said. “These are just players that even in two tough losses have really gained their backbone. We need to look at them and find ways to take them out of the equation and make other players step up.”

Based on the history between the two teams, Robertshaw said she expects a tough challenge from the Big Green.

“We’re still working on through it,” she said. “With Dartmouth, it’s always a really tough battle. Every year with us it has been one since I got to Boston University.”

Robertshaw said aggressiveness will be key in Wednesday’s matchup.

“It’s something where both teams like to push the fast break and be very aggressive,” she said. “We want to make sure we bring our aggressiveness to the table and show them down.”

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Doug covers women's soccer and other sports for the Daily Free Press. When he's not doing schoolwork, writing, or being a social butterfly on campus, he enjoys playing the piano, or hitting the course for a round of golf.

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