In February, the Boston University women’s lacrosse team was picked by America East coaches to repeat as conference champions. In its first conference game of the season on Saturday, the team looked primed to live up to those lofty goals.
Playing in freezing rain at a freshly shoveled Nickerson Field, the Terriers (5-4, 1-0 America East) came out on fire and dominated the Bearcats (0-4, 0-1), controlling every facet of the game and cruising to a 19-1 victory. After losing four of its first six games, BU has won three straight.
BU coach Liza Shoemaker said that before the conference schedule began, the Terriers were aware of what was expected of them in the America East. Outside opinion motivated BU to establish an early command of the league.
‘I think that today was about setting the tone for this conference,’ Shoemaker said. ‘We wanted to earn the respect that that first-selection pick gave us.’
Snow showers forced the scheduled time of the game to be pushed from noon to 3:30 p.m. A snow-covered Nickerson looked more like an outdoor skating pavilion than an athletic field.
After the snow was cleared, the Terriers took advantage of the Bearcats early and often, lighting up the scoreboard to the tune of seven goals in the first eight minutes. Even more impressive, BU needed only eight shots to jump to its 7-0 lead. Freshman attacker Lindsay Lewis and junior midfielders Sasha Lang and Kylie Wagenet each scored twice during the spurt while freshman attacker Mary Beth Miller added another.
‘Binghamton does a really good job of doubling the ball, especially in our attacking end,’ Shoemaker said. ‘So they really put us in a position where we really needed to take good care of it by moving it quickly.’
BU moved the ball extremely well against an overmatched Binghamton squad. The Bearcats are only in their second year of NCAA competition since making a dramatic jump from the club level to Division I in 2002.
With early control of the game and against lesser competition, the Terriers were able to allow other players to get into the action. In all, 10 different Terriers scored against the Bearcats. Sophomore midfielder Alyssa Trudel, Wagenet, and Lang lead the charge for BU. Trudel scored two goals and added four assists, while Wagenet scored three goals and served up three assists for a career-high six points. Lang scored three goals of her own.
Other scorers for the Terriers were junior attacker Rachel Olanoff (two goals), freshmen midfielders Kaitlyn Cuneo (two goals), Kathryn Dahm (one goal), Keely Anderson (one goal), and Danica Strutt (one goal), Lewis (two goals) and Miller (two goals).
‘We had a lot people off the bench contribute, both in the attack end and the defensive end,’ Shoemaker said. ‘I think the defenders did a great job limiting [Binghamton] to one goal, and our attackers had a lot of touches out there.’
Other statistics further illustrate the Terriers’ dominance over the Bearcats. BU scored its 19 goals, 14 of them assisted, on just 25 shots in its most proficient scoring performance of the season. Defensively, the Terriers limited the Bearcats to only two shots and forced 20 Binghamton turnovers.
Lang added that the first conference win was good to motivate BU to keep playing at a high level.
‘This conference win meant a lot to us, but we just need to keep the momentum,’ the junior midfielder said. ‘We just got to keep a good attitude.’
Despite the easy win, the Terriers did lose something this weekend. Due to the snow and ice storms that bombarded the region on Friday, BU’s scheduled game with No. 13 Dartmouth College on Friday afternoon was canceled. Shoemaker said the game will not be rescheduled.
‘The worst part is that we’re not going to be able to make it up,’ Shoemaker said. ‘But [Saturday’s game against Binghamton] is a conference game, and technically conference is the most important thing right now.’
The Terriers are idle until this Friday when they welcome the University at Albany to Nickerson for another conference contest. For BU, it will be another opportunity to live up to its preseason billing as the team to beat in the America East.
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