After opening the season with a challenging tournament, the Boston University field hockey team’s difficult schedule continues, traveling to Amherst for the UMass Invitational to face No. 17 University of Massachusetts-Amherst and No. 9 University of Iowa.
‘I did this purposely,’ BU coach Sally Starr said. ‘It’s a really challenging weekend . . . I gave us a tough schedule in the beginning of the season to really challenge us and to help us grow up quickly, and that’s what this is all about right now.’
The Terriers (0-2) will try to take lessons from the Wildcat Classic in Evanston, Ill., where they lost close matches against host Northwestern University and No. 1 University of Maryland, and improve in their upcoming games against ranked opponents.
‘We learned that we can definitely create excellent scoring opportunities,’ Starr said. ‘In the Northwestern game, when we outshot them, we withstood an amazing attack, it could have easily been 3-0 at halftime . . . We just shot a little bit wide, we hit the post a couple times, and I think we were just really unlucky in that game as much as anything else.’
‘[Against Maryland,] we learned that . . . we really could compete, even at this early stage of the season with outstanding competition. There’s a lot of things we didn’t do correct in that game, like our pressing lines and things like that. We really did not execute our game plan the way that we wanted to, but even with that, we were able to compete and generate some outstanding attacking and outstanding defense.’
The Terriers’ first test this weekend will be the Minutewomen (1-0) on Friday, who have captured the Atlantic 10 title and an NCAA tournament berth for two straight seasons. In its season opener, UMass defeated No. 20 Providence College, 1-0, behind a score by senior Jill Powers and a shutout from sophomore Alesha Widdall.
‘UMass continues to get better and better every year,’ Starr said. ‘They are definitely the premier team in the A10. They’ll be excellent competition for us and a big challenge for us as well.’
The competition doesn’t get any easier on Sunday, when the Terriers face the Hawkeyes (0-2), who have won three consecutive Big Ten Tournament championships and are a year removed from an NCAA Final Four appearance. Winless its first two games, Iowa lost to two top five squads ‘- No. 2 Wake Forest University and No. 4 University of North Carolina ‘- and should not be overlooked.
The unrelenting schedule would not be easy in any circumstance for BU, but the unexpected absence of two experienced players have made matters worse. Senior Gabby Hajjar suffered a summer ACL injury and was lost for the season, while graduate student Sheena Berry lost her appeal for another year of eligibility from the NCAA. Still, the Terriers look to bounce back and make the most of their demanding slate.
‘We really are a young team,’ Starr said. ‘Two players we thought would be coming into this season . . . would have been two returning outstanding players. Beyond that, we are very young and we’re excited. I think we’re a team that if we can keep our focus and keep working hard day after day, after each game, and really look to improve after each practice and each game, we have the potential to be very, very good.’
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