Senior Day.
The heralded event carried out by every college sports team nationwide provides no shortage of mixed emotions. While coaches, parents and teammates reflect on the contributions of departing players during their four years, underclassmen also absorb the moment as a wakeup call: Next year will be different.
As the play host to Stanford University (6-6) on Sunday afternoon, 18 members of the Boston University lacrosse team (10-5) will begin the process of preparing for life after Kait Gentry, Noelle Hopper, Angie Martin and Alex Mount — the team’s senior quartet playing in its final regular-season game at Nickerson Field.
For Gentry, Hopper and Martin, the quad-captain caretakers of a sizable freshmen class which makes up more than half of BU’s roster, their senior years were expected to be a rebuilding year. With the offseason departure of coach Liza Kelly and BU’s top three scorers from 2006, no one expected a replication of last season’s 15-5 campaign that was capped off by an NCAA Tournament appearance.
But on the strength of valuable trust between the upperclassmen and rookies, along with the mental and physical toughness instilled by rookie coach Liz Robertshaw, the 2007 Terriers overcame a shaky start to capture a share of yet another America East regular-season title.
Though the intangible veteran presence of Gentry and Mount doesn’t translate to the stat sheet, Hopper (team-high 35 ground balls) and Martin (team-best 51 points) complemented their leadership with remarkable on-field play, anchoring BU’s respective defensive and attacking units all season long.
And while Sunday’s game is another chance for the streaking Terriers (8-1 last since late March) to churn out a strong showing before next weekend’s America East Tournament, it will also be viewed as a tribute to the accomplishments of the Class of 2007.
“Senior Day is something this team takes very personally,” said Robertshaw, who arrived on campus in 2004 along with Gentry, Hopper, Martin and Mount. “We want to play as hard as we possibly can for all of the seniors because of what they’ve given.”
In hopes of spoiling BU’s special day, Stanford invades Nickerson Sunday for the first time in program history, sporting a 5-2 mark since early March. Following the Terriers’ victory over No. 19/18 Dartmouth College on Wednesday, Robertshaw was expectedly unacquainted with the Cardinals, whom the Terriers have not played since 2002, when BU edged Stanford, 9-8, at Baltimore’s UMBC Stadium.
The idea of matching up against a California-based program intrigues Robertshaw.
“It’s a West Coast team,” she said. “We haven’t played Stanford in a while, so we’ll see what we can do. They’re a young and aggressive team that likes to push the fast break. They also have a good goalkeeper who is a very solid player. We need to take [Wednesday’s] effort into Sunday.”
Stanford netminder Laura Shane, owner of a 10.74 goals-against average and a .524 save percentage, should provide a significant challenge for a Terrier offense that has made a habit of torching opposing goalies in recent weeks. Stanford’s junior goalie, named the youngest member of the U.S. Elite Team last summer, has played all 732 minutes (12 games) between the pipes this season.
Shane is backed by an offense touting four 20-point scorers: senior Liz Piselli (23), juniors Megan McClain (25) and Daphne Patterson (23) and rookie Lauren Schmidt (25).
Despite entering Sunday’s game with a wealth of confidence, the question remains: Could the distractions of Senior Day and a non-conference opponent derail the Terriers in their final hurdle before the America East Tournament?
“Sunday’s [approach] should be the same as every other game,” said junior quad-captain Lauren Morton. “It really doesn’t matter to us whether it’s conference or not. We need to be selfless, ready to play and attack as if it’s the national championship.”