The Boston University women’s lacrosse team has the pleasure of leaving the beautiful start-of-spring weather here in Boston this weekend, as it heads south for two games in Maryland.
The Terriers (1-2) are coming off a tough loss last weekend to Ohio State University, but hope to put that behind them as they head south. They will play the Retrievers of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County on Friday, followed by a game against Stanford University to be held at Loyola College on Sunday.
“This weekend, we need to play our game, play BU lacrosse,” said senior Molly Byrne. “Come strong and dominate the entire time.”
“We are all eager to play this weekend,” added senior Ericka Hergenroeder, “and show people what BU lacrosse is about and play with the heart we need the entire 60 minutes of play.”
Playing for 60 minutes was a problem last Saturday, as Ohio State jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead before BU had a chance to blink. But, according to players and head coach Liza Shoemaker, that will not happen again.
“In order to be successful this weekend, we really need to come together on the field as a team,” Shoemaker said. “We have a very talented group of players, but they need to play as a cohesive unit. We must be mentally tougher than we have been and come prepared to play a solid 60 minutes of lacrosse.”
While Shoemaker has brought a lot of optimism to the team, she has not forgotten the Ohio State loss, nor the loss at the University of North Carolina.
“This week we’ve been working on creating a more dynamic attack, as well as fine tuning certain aspects of our game,” Byrne said. “We have an amazing team, each member is a phenomenal lacrosse player, and when we all believe it, we’re unstoppable.”
While things can be learned from losses such as the one to the Buckeyes, the players and Shoemaker have moved on.
“A lot of what we have worked on this season is playing in the moment,” Byrne said. “If you make a mistake, you learn from it and then continue to play. I think the whole team was hurt by the loss, but we, through Liza’s direction, have changed some things since then. OSU is now in the past, and we have to focus on our upcoming games this weekend. That is what is important now.”
The games this weekend are very important for the Terriers as they come closer to a tough stretch in the schedule, starting with their home-opener against nationally-ranked Yale University next week.
“We have had a great week of practices,” Hergenroeder said. “And we feel confident going into this weekend’s games against UMBC and Stanford. Our game against Ohio State is something we can learn from and fix what went wrong, which is what we have been doing this week in practices.”
Once in Maryland, the Terriers will not need to travel too far, playing Friday afternoon at UMBC, then Sunday at Loyola College against the Stanford Cardinal.
EBERHART EARNS CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The America East Conference honored Terrier sophomore defender Liz Eberhart as the Women’s Lacrosse Defender of the Week. Eberhart caused five turnovers and four ground balls in the 16-7 loss to Ohio State, both team-highs. She also won one draw. Eberhart, a member of the conference All-Rookie team last year, has started all three games this season and leads the team in caused turnovers and ground balls.