In another dismal offensive performance, the Boston University lacrosse team fell to the University of Connecticut 12-8 in Storrs, Conn. Wednesday.
While the Huskies (7-8) benefited from the five-point performance of junior attacker Tracey Mullaney, no Terrier earned more than two points, as the team suffered its second loss in as many contests.
Trailing Connecticut 4-2 at the half, the Terriers tried to mount a rally in the second half, but were stymied by Huskies junior goalkeeper Jennifer Wong, who made 10 of her game-high 14 saves in the second frame.
BU edged out Connecticut in ground balls in the second period, 11-9, but did not come close to erasing the 20-10 difference the Huskies ran up in the first 30 minutes of regulation.
Wednesday night wasn’t the first time the squad has struggled in the second half of games this season. After building a 6-4 halftime lead against 3rd-ranked Loyola College earlier in the season, the Terriers could only watch in the second half as the Greyhounds outscored the Terriers 8-1 en route to a 12-7 victory.
After beginning the season ranked 10th in the country, BU (5-8) has fallen well below the .500 mark and out of the national picture. Even the America East conference championship, which was practically a foregone conclusion for many sporting the scarlet and white at the start of the season, will be an uphill battle.
After winning 14 consecutive conference games and two straight league titles, BU lost to the University of New Hampshire 7-6 on Saturday and will almost certainly not have home-field advantage for the tournament for the first time in two years.
The loss came exactly two years to the day after the last time the Terriers had suffered defeat in the America East, also at the hands of the Wildcats, 13-9. BU has been hampered by a string of injuries that has forced BU coach Liza Shoemaker to repeatedly shuffle the lineup, often at the expense of the once-potent offense.
After finishing with the third-highest goals per game average in the country with 12.78 last season, the club is averaging only 9.62 this season and has been held to single digits six times, all losses.
With injuries devastating the midfield and the defense, Shoemaker has been forced to move offensive threats such as sophomore leading scorer Lindsay Lewis (43 points) and junior catalyst Alyssa Trudel (32 points) to try to shore up the gaps on the field.
The offense has suffered as a result, and a lack of depth has prevented the coach from resting the players who are trying to play through their injuries.
Earlier in the season, Shoemaker said her team struggled with the mental aspect of the game, especially during the five-game skid that knocked the Terriers out of the top 20 in the national rankings.
As a young team that relies heavily on freshmen and sophomores, like Lewis and Mary Beth Miller (the returning America East Rookie of the Year), at times BU has appeared to be mentally out of sync.
While battling through injuries, the club has also had to struggle with losing situations they had never previously experienced in recent seasons, such as in the loss to New Hampshire. For 15 players, the 7-6 defeat was the first time they had ever lost to an America East foe.
The team had hoped to rebound from that devastating loss with a strong showing against Connecticut, whom the Terriers easily defeated last season 11-4.
Instead, the club returns to Nickerson Saturday night for Senior Night with more questions than answers as the team tries to reel off a string of victories against lower-echelon conference teams and Dartmouth College before beginning the tournament on May 6.
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