It was a weekend of ups and downs for the Boston University field hockey team. They went from winners to losers in less than 24 hours, leaving North Carolina the way they entered-with a .500 record.
The Terriers started the two-game set off on the right foot with a solid 5-1 win over Appalachian State University Saturday, the team’s second win of the young 2006 season.
“We played well in the second half,” said BU coach Sally Starr. “The first half was a struggle, but in the second half we definitely took control of the game.”
Shaking off the cobwebs after a full week without a game, the Terriers didn’t net their first goal until the 10th minute of the first half when a Mountaineer miscue gave BU its first chance to capitalize.
After an Appalachian foul, sophomore Holly Wiles sent a pass into the circle where junior Sarah Shute deflected the ball into the air and over Mountaineer goalie Mikayla Paulson to notch her second goal of the season. That wouldn’t be the last Appalachian State saw of Shute either, as she led the Terriers with a pair of goals and an assist.
“The first goal Sarah scored, off the deflection, that’s the type of goal that you see in the highlight reel at the end of the season,” Starr said.
The Terriers wouldn’t strike again until more than 10 minutes later. On a BU corner-its second of the day-senior Erin Calamari sent a pass through the pack to sophomore Lauren Alfaro, who stopped the ball and slipped it past Paulson to give BU the two-goal lead.
Before the first half came to a close, junior Pam Spuehler helped increase the Terrier lead to three when she took the ball all the way down the baseline and hit fellow junior Hadley Adams alone by the post to finish the job.
“In the second half, we distributed the ball better,” Starr said. “We played as a team, connected passes, moved off each other and made good decisions.”
At the start of the second half, the Mountaineers netted their only goal of the match when Alicia Larkins sent a hard shot past the boards at 41:16.
It was all BU after that. The Terriers’ fourth goal came on a combined effort between Spuehler and Shute. Spuehler set up the pass and Shute positioned herself perfectly to finish the play for her second goal of the day.
“Sarah played excellent,” Starr said. “She scored some nice goals, she was positionally disciplined and she put herself in a good position to finish her plays.”
Shute topped off her standout day by setting up the fifth and final Terrier score. This time, Shute sent a picture-perfect pass to the near post where junior Hayley Hamada scooped it up and notched her first goal of the season, putting an exclamation point on the Terrier win.
Riding the high of domination, the Terriers took on No. 4 Duke University Sunday in their toughest test of the season thus far. Unfortunately for the Terriers, the Blue Devils got the best of them, shutting out BU, 4-0.
“Duke is a good team,” Starr said. “Walking off the field, I felt like we did a good job against them.”
Duke took the lead early when sophomore Marian Dickinson finished off a rebound at 7:14 of the first half. Duke then got a two-goal cushion when midfielder Amy Stopford capitalized on a penalty shot.
“My biggest disappointment is getting shut out,” Starr said. “But only holding them to one goal in the second half is quite an accomplishment. We played a lot of defense out there today.”
Dickinson was a problem for the Terriers all day as she netted her second goal of the game at 24:48, sliding a shot past BU goalie Erin Prediger for the 3-0 advantage. Assisting on the goal was Duke senior Cara-Lynn Lopresti, who also scored a goal of her own to finish off the game’s scoring. Lopresti’s goal came just after halftime.
“We definitely played better in this game than in previous games,” Starr said. “It’s the type of game we just need to learn from. I feel as though we are a much better team returning to Boston than we were getting on the plane leaving Boston.”
Although the Terriers displayed dominance over Appalachian State, Starr said Duke is a completely different team and a much better competitor for BU.
“The level of competition is night and day,” Starr said. “Duke is a final four team, where Appalachian State is not even close to a Top 20 team. They are a team we should dominate and we did dominate, even with liberal substitutions.”
Despite the discouraging ending to the trip down south, Starr seemed optimistic about the Terriers’ future and was in no way disheartened by the loss.
“We dominated the team we needed to dominate, and we made improvements against Duke,” she said. “Coming back 1-1 is nothing to be ashamed of. We’re coming back a better team-a more mature team.”