The No. 17 Boston University field hockey team had a mixed bag of a weekend.
After defeating the College of the Holy Cross, 6-1, in Worcester on Friday night, the Terriers (9-4, 4-0 Patriot League) returned to New Balance Field to face No. 4 Duke University. BU did not fare nearly as well against the Blue Devils (10-3), falling 1-0 in an overtime heartbreaker.
BU nonetheless remains at the top of the Patriot League standings with its weekend split. The 6-1 victory on the road against the Crusaders (6-7, 1-2 Patriot League) showed off the offensive firepower of the Terriers. However, the loss to the Blue Devils also brought out some positives for BU.
“We played 83 minutes and had opportunities to score ourselves.” said BU coach Sally Starr. “[Junior goalkeeper Cammy] Jensen played really well, she made some great saves. I think we as a team feel that we let this get away from us. We played well enough to win it at times. Just at the end there were a few critical mistakes that resulted in their goal.”
Jensen, two weekends removed from a career-high 10 saves against No. 1 Syracuse University, stood out again this weekend. After allowing just one goal to Holy Cross on Friday night she also gave up just a single tally to the Blue Devils on Sunday.
Over the course of the Terriers’ 13 games, all of which she has started, Jensen holds a 1.79 goals-against average and has made 47 saves and given up just 24 goals in 939 minutes played. She has come a long way to emerge as one of the Patriot League’s top goalkeepers after appearing in just two games as a sophomore last season.
The Terriers played well against the highly-touted Blue Devils, holding Duke scoreless before a sudden-death finish. Jensen played a total of 153 minutes this weekend, giving up two goals total.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think we had a really good weekend of hockey” Starr said. “We played really well at Holy Cross with a lot of goal scoring. We just played well, we played really sound hockey games, we moved the ball and passed really well.
“We had Syracuse [(13-0)] two weeks ago and we walked off the field with our tails between our legs and feeling like we were outmatched,” Starr added. “This game [against Duke] was another measure and I don’t feel like we were outmatched at all. I really like the progress we made as a team.”
Duke’s defense and goaltending have been excellent the entire season and that trend continued against BU. The Terriers are 13th in the NCAA with 3.26 goals scored per game and were still shut down by a Duke defense that has allowed one goal in its last four games.
“It took overtime for Duke to score on us and if you look back at any of their games that’s unusual,” Starr said. “We held them without shots for the first 20 minutes in the [first] half. I just feel like we did a lot of things really well today against a really good team.”
Marisa Ingemi covers field hockey for the Daily Free Press. She is also a sports radio host on WTBU and involved in BU Athletics social media department. An avid sports fan, Marisa is also the manager of the acclaimed lacrosse website InLacrosseWeTrust.com and the Boston Bruins beat writer for InsideHockey.com.
