It’s official. The road to the NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament will wind its way down Commonwealth Avenue.
The Boston University lacrosse team won the American East Regular Season championship and earned the right to host this week’s conference tournament after concluding the regular season with two conference wins this weekend, stomping the University of Vermont 17-1 on Friday and then getting by the University of New Hampshire by a count of 13-8 on Sunday.
The Terriers (12-4, 5-0), the tournament’s top seed, will play at Nickerson Field this Thursday against fourth-seed Stony Brook University in the conference semifinals. In the midst of a program-record 10-game winning streak, BU is just two wins away from earning an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament.
‘They’re very happy to be coming home,’ said BU coach Liza Shoemaker about her team’s regular season crown. Had the Terriers lost to the Wildcats on Sunday, BU would have had to travel back to UNH for the tournament.
In what Shoemaker called a ‘tough’ win, the Terriers took the field on Sunday in their first pressure-filled game of the season. With the regular season title on the line, UNH was looking for revenge against BU in the teams’ first meeting since BU topped the Wildcats 11-5 in last season’s conference championship game.
‘It was their Senior Day and they had something to prove,’ Shoemaker said about the Wildcats.
In the first half, UNH baited the Terriers into playing an up-tempo game. Despite the 13-goal output from the Terriers, Shoemaker said it took a while for BU to establish its own attack to counter the Wildcats’ ‘run-and-gun’ style. The Terriers held a slim 5-4 advantage at intermission.
‘We tried to run it with [UNH] when we’re more of a passing team,’ Shoemaker said.
In the second half, sophomore midfielder Alyssa Trudel and freshman midfielder Lindsay Lewis led the Terriers’ passing-powered attack that has been so successful this season. Trudel scored three of her game-high five goals in the final 30 minutes, while Lewis also played a strong game, scoring one goal and dishing out a game-high three assists.
Other scorers for the Terriers were senior midfielder Caroline Kelleher (two goals), freshman attacker Mary Beth Miller (2), freshman midfielder Danica Strutt (2) and junior midfielder Kylie Wagenet (1).
Sophomore goalkeeper Anne Sheridan was again solid in net, playing the entire 60 minutes and making 12 saves.
‘Anne played an amazing game,’ Shoemaker said of the sophomore goalkeeper.
After a shaky first, BU doubled up UNH in the second half, 8-4, en route to a 13-8 victory and regular season title.
While the win may not have been as convincing as Shoemaker and the Terriers may have wanted, BU did what it had to do to secure home-field advantage in its attempt to earn an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. She was pleased that the team was able to come through when the stakes were high.
‘Being able to play under that pressure is a new thing for us,’ Shoemaker said. ‘We know that we could have played better.’
The Terriers could not have played better on Friday against Vermont. BU dominated the Catamounts 17-1 and set a program record with its ninth consecutive win.
Like they did against UNH, Trudel and Lewis led the Terrier offense, combining for 15 points. Trudel led all scorers with four goals and four assists while Lewis scored four goals of her own and handed out three assists.
Trudel, BU’s leading scorer, set the tone early against Vermont, scoring her first goal in the opening minutes of the contest. Wagenet scored the first of her two goals shortly thereafter to give the Terriers a two-goal lead that they would only increase as the game progressed.
Other BU scorers were freshman midfielder Kathyrn Dahm (3), senior midfielder Brianna Smith (1), junior attacker Rachel Olanoff (1) and Miller (2).
Even before the season started, the Terriers were the clear favorite to win this week’s conference tournament. After being picked to win the conference by America East coaches, BU went undefeated in the league’s regular season and outscored its opponents 88-15.
Shoemaker was asked if the NCAA Tournament has been a year-long goal for the Terriers.
‘Absolutely,’ the head coach said. ‘I don’t think there’s any stopping them.’
BU will host Stony Brook (7-9, 2-3) at 1 p.m. on Thursday in the first conference semifinal. Following that game, New Hampshire (4-11, 4-1) will play Vermont (4-9, 2-3) in the other semifinal at 3:30 p.m.
The America East Championship Game will be on Saturday, May 3 at noon.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
