The Boston University field hockey team ensured that the America East Conference Tournament comes to them for a second straight year, when the Terriers were victorious in a 3-1 match against the University of Maine on Sunday.
“I think we played really well today,” said junior goalkeeper Erin Prediger. “There were a few lapses, but we dominated most of the game. It was a well-played match.”
The No. 18 Terriers (13-5, 4-1 America East) will share the regular- season title with 12-6 Maine, who has an identical conference record, but BU earned the right to host the championship by winning the head-to-head match.
“Having home-field is amazing,” Prediger said. “We didn’t have a lot of home games this year. That’s just the way it worked out, so to give our seniors another chance to play at home is great. It’s always fun to play in front of our friends and families.”
The Terriers were able to capitalize early by preventing the Black Bears from taking a single shot in the first half. With the ball in their attacking zone, the Terriers gave themselves several opportunities to score. In the 10th minute, Sarah Hudak passed the ball from the left side and junior Amy Seaman pushed it in for the goal. Seaman’s fourth goal of the season gave the Terriers a 1-0 lead.
As the first half entered its closing minutes, the Terriers struck twice more. First, sophomore Pam Spuehler took a shot at the cage from the right side. When the ball moved toward the left post, fellow sophomore Sarah Shute redirected it forward and into the back of the net.
Less than four minutes later, freshman Lauren Alfaro scored on a well-placed pass from senior Colleen McClay to give the Terriers a 3-0 lead at the break. Alfaro’s goal was her fourth of the season.
The rookie forward is now one of nine Terriers with eight or more points this season.
The Terriers took only three shots in the second half, but had established a large enough lead that it didn’t cost them.
The Maine offense picked up the slack after the break. The aggression paid off in the 40th minute, when the Black Bears earned their first of five penalty corner opportunities. But Prediger made three quick saves to keep the Black Bears scoreless.
Midway through the second half, Maine was finally able to get on the scoreboard, when Kasey Spencer slipped a deflected shot past Prediger to make the score 3-1. The Black Bears made several attempts to launch a late comeback, but the Terriers’ defense held them off to win the contest.
Prediger recorded five saves in the game, while allowing one goal. Rebecca Giroux and Maygan Cassarino combined for nine Black Bear saves.
After losing two consecutive matchups two weeks ago, the Terriers rebounded to win their last two games of the season and improve to 13-5, the team’s best winning percentage since 1999.
“This year, I feel like there’s a little more energy on the field,” said Prediger, a third-year starter. “Maybe it’s because we’ve been playing together for so long, but it’s almost like we can read each other out there.”
The Terriers will open up the conference tournament against the fourth-seeded University of Vermont on Friday afternoon. Maine versus third-seeded University at Albany will follow, with the championship match to be played on Saturday.
“We just have to keep gunning,” Prediger said. “We’re going to go out to practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and just bring everything that we have. That will carry us over into Friday.”
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