The No. 13 Boston University lacrosse team entered the season with high expectations, but eight games in, the Terriers have compiled a record of 4-4, including two straight home losses to the University of Notre Dame and Yale University.
The Terriers will travel to Binghamton University for a date with the Bearcats on Saturday at noon at the Bearcat Sports Complex.
“We just need to turn our spirits around,” said senior BU attacker McKinley Curro. “We’ve had some bad losses, and I think that right now we can easily sink or rise to the challenge and show Binghamton who we really are.”
After starting the season on a three-game winning streak, the Terriers have stumbled lately, losing four of their last five contests.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I thought we’d be 8-0 right now and that is me being confident in our team. That’s me believing they could do it,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “We’ve stumbled, and that is something that the team has to rise up and decide what they want.”
BU was unanimously chosen to finish first in the conference and defend their title. Luckily for the struggling Terriers, they will play the team who America East coaches unanimously predicted would finish last.
“Every year in conference, we want to win the America East championship,” Robertshaw said. “I think that”s something we need to put ourselves in a position to do.”
The Bearcats have lived up to their predicted last-place finish, starting the season 0-5. Most recently Binghamton was embarrassed at home, losing to Le Moyne College 17-8.
The Bearcats’ biggest weakness is their defense. In five games, they have given up a total of 77 goals, an average of 15.4 goals per game. This is good news for the Terriers, who struggled to score in their 11-9 loss to Yale despite 37 shot attempts.
Juniors Beth Moore, Ali Castiglie and sophomore Lis Zuern lead Binghamton offensively, scoring a combined 29 of the team’s 49 goals. Moore leads the team with 12 goals and has been dangerous on free-position shots, converting on five of six attempts.
Three Bearcats have split time in net, but none have seen much success. Best has been junior Lauren Scott, who has given up an average of 13.45 goals per game, while saving 50 percent of shots on goal.
Curro said there was “not necessarily” any pressure being the unanimous pick to finish first in the conference.
“America East has continually gotten better, so it”s really whoever shows up,” she said. “We like to dream big. We want to go all the way, but obviously we take it game by game. We wanted to do the best we could out of conference and dominate in the conference, so going into Binghamton we hope to dominate.”
The Terriers by no means are taking Binghamton, or any team in AE, lightly.
“It’s going to be a fight for every game,” said junior defender Corcoran Downey.
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