Offensive explosion?
Let’s label that the understatement of the year.
The Boston University women’s lacrosse team went on an 11-0 run in a span of under 19 minutes and opened America East play with a 16-5 demolition of Stony Brook University on Saturday at Nickerson Field.
If Nickerson’s flood gates were ever closed, they certainly aren’t any more, as BU’s 12 goals in the first half marked a season high and are the most for a Terrier team since BU scored 13 in a 20-3 win over Binghamton University on April 17, 2005.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first 30 seconds, BU was simply unstoppable as seven different Terriers recorded points during the impressive run.
“I think offensively, we’re finally clicking, which is where we want to be,” said BU coach Liza Kelly. “We wanted to come out and we really wanted to try and dominate Stony Brook today, and I think that in the first half they did that so I was really pleased.”
Senior Mary Beth Miller contributed a career-high eight points (five goals, three assists) toward a Terrier victory that featured eight different scorers in all.
“I think that was one of our strengths last year,” Kelly said, “being able to look not just to one or two people, but having anybody being able to step up on a given day. Our plays, they’re plays for assists, they’re not really [isolation] plays or one-on-ones. It’s really trying to get somebody open off of a pick or a screen so that we have assisted goals, and I think that when you have assisted goals it’s because anybody’s open, not just one person that you’re looking for.”
Part of that team chemistry comes from sophomore Jenny Hauser, who scored three goals and an assist, and tallied the 100th point of her career in just her 27th game as a Terrier.
“Coming out of high school, she was a rock star,” Kelly said. “I think that we knew, in all honesty, that Jenny is the type of player that’s a program changer. She draws a lot of attention to herself, she gets a faceguard in some games, she gets double-teamed every time she gets the ball and she still puts up the points.
“But it just helps out the rest of the team because now their top defender is pulled on somebody else. I always say, I think the great thing with Jenny is that she gets the points but she just works so hard to get the caused turnovers and everything else in the game too.”
Because Hauser and her fellow teammates were playing lights-out early on, it gave Kelly a chance to empty her bench and get new faces in the game. One of those faces was Colleen McClay, who, after an All-American career with BU’s field hockey team, joined lacrosse and played the entire second half in goal for the Terriers.
“She was fantastic, I was so proud of her,” Kelly said. “I think that she really stepped up and saved the defense’s butts a couple times. I think she really made some great saves her clears were good and she played really smart, really well.”
BU also got contributions from sophomore Lauren Morton and senior tri-captain Danica Strutt, who recorded two goals apiece, and junior Angie Martin, who scored a goal and added a pair of assists.
The Terriers not only dominated on the field, but on the stat sheet as well. They outshot the Seawolves, 36-17, held a 30-24 advantage in ground balls and doubled up SBU in draw controls, 16-8.
Even though BU is a heavy favorite to win America East, that doesn’t mean that they won’t be tested during conference play.
“I think the fun thing about our conference is that all of the teams are doing so much better this year, that it’s great for the conference,” Kelly said. “But we absolutely need to come out and show that we are the team to beat and that we can dominate in this conference.”
Though the Terriers are performing so well — currently riding a three-game winning streak and a 17-game home unbeaten streak — there’s always room for improvement.
“I would say at this point, we are playing where we want to be, but I still think we could be moving the ball faster,” Kelly said. “We could be going harder with it, really seeing the goalkeeper a little bit more when we’re shooting so I think there’s a lot of room for improvement, but this is definitely the best [we’ve been] as of yet.”