Dalton adds to her collection of records and awards

‘ Dalton tied the single-game tournament record with six goals in Saturday’s title bout against the University of New Hampshire and finished the weekend with 11 goals in two games, breaking the previous tournament record of 10 set by the University of Delaware’s Megan Fortunato in 1999. Needless to say, she was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, a trophy she can put on her shelf next to her back-to-back America East Player of the Year awards.

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‘She was just awesome,’ BU coach Liz Robertshaw said of Dalton. ‘She upped her game. She knew that she was gonna face a lot of pressure. She’s a player who just rose to the occasion. I remember hearing Jack Parker say, ‘Special people make special plays.’ And that’s her. She’s big time.’

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Three of Dalton’s goals Saturday started at the side of the net, a strategy the Terriers employed all day. On her first goal, the Cornwall, Vt., native cut to the net from the left side while junior Xan Weitzel, who had a game-high four assists, held behind the net until Dalton was able to find an open seam to get a shot off.

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Her second goal started with junior McKinley Curro holding at the right side of the net. Dalton charged toward the net, and just as the case was with Weitzel, Curro hit her with a pass as soon as she found an open lane. The senior’s fourth goal was more of the same ‘-‘- Weitzel holds at the left, Dalton barrels down the middle, Weitzel makes a perfect pass and Dalton finishes.

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‘They try to collapse us down low a lot, and up top, so coming from the sides was our game plan -‘-‘- to hit those easy cuts,’ Weitzel said. ‘And it worked well.’

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But the highlight of the game was Dalton’s third goal. With 2:35 left in the first half, she made a run to the cage and beat freshman keeper Kate Gunts while falling to the ground.

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Dalton’s final two goals, both of which came in a three-minute span beginning at the 18:27 mark of the second, came on straight runs to the net with little resistance from the Wildcat defenders.

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‘We watched a lot of film, we had a really good game plan and we wanted to adjust from how we played last time against UNH [a 9-8 BU win] when we were stifled a little bit,’ Robertshaw said. ‘We tried to open the middle a little bit more by giving some space with attacking. I thought they did a better job this time around of playing together and giving their teammates space to challenge rather than just all bunching up. We had to change a couple things from how we usually play, but I think it worked today.’

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Dalton now has 86 goals and 97 points this season and 242 goals and 279 points in her college career, all of which are BU records. When asked if she could’ve ever expected to have this good of a season, she responded:

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‘Not at all. I played a lot of lacrosse. The U.S. [Developmental National Team] definitely helped me out with kind of learning new things. But I didn’t think anything like this. It’s a dream come true. This is awesome.’

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Her coach, however, isn’t quite as shocked.

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‘It wasn’t necessarily something I planned for, but it was something I hoped for from her,’ Robertshaw said. ‘She has worked tirelessly on her shots, on her game, on her field sense, on everything. Knowing how hard she’s worked and how many hours she’s put in, I’m not surprised by how good of a season she’s having.’