The Boston University lacrosse team will look to accomplish something today it has never done in the program’s 20-year history – beat Yale University on the Bulldogs’ home turf.
The Terriers defeated the Bulldogs for the first time in 10 all-time matchups last March, earning a 15-5 victory. The Terriers, riding a 15-game home winning streak at the time, peppered Yale with a 2006 season-high 40 shots.
Backed by an eight-point performance from then-sophomore Jenny Hauser, the No. 12 Terriers dismantled a potent Yale attack with aggressive perimeter defense and a prolific offensive output. BU had possession for more than three-quarters of the game, while the defense forced 17 Bulldogs turnovers. The Terriers’ nine-goal second half catapulted the team to an early 4-2 record, eventually finishing the season 15-5.
“Last year, we attacked them right away and didn’t sit back and wait,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “We went after them, knowing that if we did sit back and wait, we were going to put ourselves in a hole. That definitely will carry over to this year’s team. We need to go out and attack.”
But if there is anything to be said about the Terriers’ makeup this year in comparison to last season’s, it is that the team is still molded around what Robertshaw calls “BU Attitude.”
“That really is our game plan,” Robertshaw said. “We need to go out and push right away, step up and play our game.”
Of the 12 starters that took part in BU’s dissection of the Bulldogs last season, just four will take part in the opening draw Wednesday afternoon. One of those four will be sophomore midfielder Sarah Dalton.
Alongside Hauser last March, Dalton split the Bulldog defense for four goals, notching three within the first five minutes of the second half before closing out the bout with a free position just 1:42 before the closing whistle.
If the Terriers are to duplicate their late-winter success again this season, however, the deciding factor will be Robertshaw’s ability to utilize her talented arsenal.
At 2-2 this season and already dropped from the national rankings for the first time in more than a year, BU’s success is reliant on its ability to spread the ball around the attacking zone.
In BU’s victories over Hofstra University and Loyola University, three Terriers registered multi-goal performances, while more than half the starters posted at least one assist.
“We talked about as a team, identifying that more people need to step up,” Robertshaw said. “It’s not like the girls haven’t stepped up, but we’ve talked to the freshmen and the other attackers and said, ‘Listen, we need you to take chances and go to the goal and really be part of the attack. You need to understand it.’ Right now we have four leaders in the attacking end, but we need at least seven in double digit [points].”
Looking to charge BU’s attack will be America East Rookie of the Week and conference-leader in assists Erica Baumgartner. Coming of a spectacular eight-point, six-assist week, Baumgartner looks to support the methodical freelance scheme responsible for the Terriers’ early success.
“She’s a nice assister and very vocal as a freshman,” Robertshaw said. “She’s comfortable and she’ll take chances and shows that she sees her teammates. I’m ok with her [17] turnovers because she’s learning the game. She has that many because she has to learn her way through. She takes the chances, and she’s going to learn, get better and slim down those numbers.”
Alongside Baumgartner will be fellow freshman attacker Traci Landy. As the top frosh through the first four games, Landy has tallied a total of seven goals, including a hat trick against Hofstra. Landy’s physical aggressive and hard-nosed attacking style will allow the Seaford, N.Y. native to assault Yale’s soft interior defense.
“We’ve talked to Traci a couple times and we let her know that we want her to go to goal,” Robertshaw said. “We need her to do that, and if she can, it can give us that other threat that will open the door for other scorers.”
In the midfield, Robertshaw looks to junior tri-captain Lauren Morton to shoulder the midfield transition game, which plagued the Terriers at George Mason University this past weekend.
In a game that saw BU drop the ball to the turf a season-high 19 times, little could be done to keep the Patriots out of the Terriers’ 30-yard line.
“Again, I think it’s something we saw, we watched film and we talked to everyone about not looking scared,” Robertshaw said. “We have to go out and be proactive. We worked on it this week and told the girls that they can handle getting the ball to the attackers.”
Minimizing unforced errors and inexperienced mistakes is at the top of Robertshaws’s list things to tweak.
“We’re going to make mistakes, but as long as we protect each other and can cover each other, we will be more than fine,” Robertshaw said.
“This game against Yale is something we are taking very seriously,” she continued. “They are ranked higher than we are in some of the polls, so now it’s our chance to bring BU lacrosse to them.”