The Boston University women’s lacrosse team (7-5, 3-1 America East) will take on the University of Connecticut today at Boston College.
Finally, the defending America East champions, the team overwhelmingly chosen by conference coaches to repeat as league champions, the team that was ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation — the highest ever in BU history) — and the team picked in the preseason to go to the Final Four, will get a break.
Or will they?
To say the season has been full of ups and downs is an understatement.
One day the Terriers will beat No. 7 University of North Carolina, the next day they’ll lose to a lesser-ranked foe like Dartmouth College.
One day they’ll trounce the University of Vermont and score the most goals in BU history, and the next day they’ll lose to Harvard University.
BU’s last two games are the perfect example of the trend.
After beating up on conference foe Towson University, 21-6, the Terriers traveled to Delaware, another league opponent, and lost 9-7.
At this point, the problem seems to be offense.
The defense is constant, but while senior attacker Chrissy Lombard broke the school record in goals scored with a six-goal performance against the Tigers, the offense is struggling or at least it isn’t where the team intended for it to be.
When BU scores goals like it did against Vermont and Towson, they win — and they win big.
Today’s match-up against the Huskies may not be as easy as one might think.
Connecticut enters the game with a less than impressive 1-8 record.
While they don’t score a lot of goals, their defense is one of the stingiest the Terriers will face all year.
The Huskies return their top three scorers from last year’s squad and, like BU, is 11 deep in veteran talent.
Fortunately for the Terriers, the offense is a weak one, scoring more than 10 goals only three times this season.
Sophomore goalkeeper April Pollack anchors the Husky defense.
Pollack ranked sixth nationally last year in save percentage, stopping more than 62 percent of shot attempts.
After losing three of their last four contests, and dropping to a season-low No. 19 in the national rankings, the Terriers must find a way to snap out of it.
They need to get out of their scoring slump and dismantle teams the way they are capable.
There are only five more games left in the regular season, two against conference opponents and a little less than two weeks until the America East playoffs begin. The Terriers are still the defending conference champions, and everyone is gunning for them. It’s their championship to lose.
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