Lax holds off SBU, 17-13

With seven points apiece from senior Sarah Dalton and junior McKinley Curro, the No. 12 Boston University lacrosse team continued its domination of the America East on Saturday, defeating Stony Brook University, 17-13, in Long Island.

Saturday’s win marked the sixth straight for the Terriers, who improved to 8-3 on the season and 3-0 in league play. Boston University remains the only unbeaten team in America East. The Seawolves dropped to 3-10 and 0-3 in the conference.

The Terriers got on the board early in the second minute on a free-position shot from junior Traci Landy. But five minutes later, the Terriers found themselves down, 3-2. Then, in the eighth minute, an offensive outburst from BU led to six goals over the next five minutes and a lead it would never relinquish.

‘A lot of it came off of getting the draw controls,’ BU coach Liz Robertshaw said. ‘When we got possession and went down to our attack, we had a lot of nice scoring chances. If we want to score, we have a good chance of doing so when we’re disciplined, and that five-minute span really showed that. Some of our players can get the ball moving quickly, and that’s when we can score a lot of goals in a short amount of time.’

During that five-minute stretch, Dalton recorded three goals to go along with tallies from freshman Hannah Frey, sophomore Mandy Rogers, a second goal from Landy and three Curro assists.

The teams continued to trade goals throughout the remainder of the first half, but Stony Brook could not catch up to the red-hot Terriers.

‘It was a pretty fast-paced game in the midfield,’ Robertshaw said. ‘We had a lot of fast-break opportunities and a couple of goals came off of that. That’s part of our attack ‘-‘- pushing the fast break and going at a higher pace.

‘Unfortunately, we also saw that it was high-paced the other way and we didn’t do a very good job of slowing down Stony Brook’s fast breaks on their end,’ Robertshaw continued. ‘Because we didn’t, that resulted in 13 goals for them.’

Even with the Seawolves’ high-powered attack, junior goalkeeper Rachel Klein stood her ground, making eight saves on 25 shots.

Curro’s seven points on the day were one shy of her personal best (8), tallied on March 28 against the University at Albany. Over the past four games, Curro has recorded 12 goals and seven assists and has been a key to the Terrier attack.

‘McKinley has been great this year,’ Robertshaw said. ‘She’s taken it upon herself to make herself be seen on the field because of the cuts she’s taking and because of the 1-on-1 challenges. She really gained a lot of confidence throughout the preseason and early this year, and has shown us she can score goals. It’s been huge for us.’