Cats’ timing is perfect

When the Boston University lacrosse team takes the field Saturday with the weight of a five-game losing streak strapped to its back, it will probably be glad to see the green and gold of the University of Vermont warming up on the other side.

The Terriers (2-5) have dominated the Catamounts (3-4), along with the rest of the America East, in the past few years, including a 17-1 thrashing last season in Burlington.

Still, BU coach Liza Shoemaker is doing her best to keep her team from taking the game lightly, especially after the disappointing 7-5 loss to Boston College on Wednesday night.

“Because of our record, we have to be up for every game,” she said. “We need to go out there and get a win under our belts and get some of the confidence back.”

BU began the season ranked 10th in the country but has since fallen out of the top 20 during the current tailspin.

Before Wednesday’s match in Chestnut Hill, Shoemaker had thought the BC game would be the right time for her team to get back on track with a win. Instead, a feisty Eagle team took advantage of a torrential downpour and blustery winds to stymie the usually high-octane Terrier offense.

Instead of coming away with a victory and ending the skid, the Terriers trailed for the entire game, only intermittently battling back to within one goal before watching BC open up a larger lead.

“Unfortunately, [a win] is what I thought the BC game would be,” Shoemaker said. “And you see how that turned out.”

The team is far from despondent as it prepares to open conference play on Saturday, mainly because the Terriers have had a stranglehold on the America East – particularly the Catamounts.

BU is currently riding another streak – an 11-game conference winning streak that dates back to 2002. And as far as Vermont is concerned, the Terriers have won the last seven meetings between the two teams, totaling 129 goals compared to a paltry 21 for the Cats.

Shoemaker said this year’s team is just as talented as the previous squads that rolled through the America East – it’s just a matter of this squad finding its sense of competition.

“It’s not so much that we need more vocal leadership, it’s that we need people stepping on to the field and bringing their ‘A’ game whether its practice or a game,” she said.

The coach said her team learned Wednesday on the rain-soaked turf of BC’s Alumni Stadium that every game is a potential loss and that players need to be completely focused for each game.

“They definitely seemed pissed off about the [BC] loss,” said Shoemaker. “We spent today stressing that it’s a new month and it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish that matters.”

BU used Thursday’s practice, although it was abbreviated because of the rain, to review passing, ball control and other offensive aspects after the dismal five-goal showing earlier this week.

The Terrier offense has struggled lately, especially for a team that finished third in the nation in goals per game last season. After scoring 12 goals in each of the team’s first two wins, BU has managed to score double digits only once, in a 17-10 loss to Johns Hopkins University.

Frequently this season, the team has had opportunities to score but has failed to get shots past the opposing goalie. In a 10-8 loss to George Mason University, Shoemaker criticized her team for taking easy shots, as evidenced by the game-high 24 saves made by the Patriots’ junior goalkeeper Meg Dentler.

Consistency has also been an issue for a team that jumped on a fourth-ranked Loyola College squad for a 6-4 halftime lead before watching the two-goal lead dissolve as Loyola pulled away in the second half for a 12-7 win.

Shoemaker knows that if her team wants to buck the current losing streak, BU will have to come out to play with the passion and intensity it showed in the first half against Loyola for an entire game against Vermont and the rest of the teams remaining on the schedule.

“We need a good game,” she said. “And it’s a conference game, so we need to come out and be ready.”