The No. 17/18 Boston University lacrosse team dropped a tough loss to No. 8 Dartmouth College on Wednesday afternoon, but the Terriers (5-5) will attempt to rebound against No. 9 Syracuse University (5-3) at 1 p.m. this Saturday.
The Big Green of Dartmouth scored the final six of seven goals in their 15-10 triumph over the Terriers. BU coach Liz Robertshaw attributed the turn-around partially to fatigue and unfortunate circumstances. Redshirt freshman midfielder Brittany Carlin was injured in the first half and is being watched day-to-day for Saturday’s game.
“We definitely lost our legs toward the end of the game . . . Dartmouth is a really good team, and they started attacking really hard, so I think in that second half we couldn’t keep stopping them and stopping them,” Robertshaw said. “It was a situation where we need to have possession of the ball a little bit more in the second half and the last ten minutes, and Dartmouth was very good on the draw control and got possession a lot.”
Dartmouth won out draw controls, 17-10, and held the advantage in both shots (31-25) and ground balls (18-11). Senior co-captain McKinley Curro continued to lead the way with three goals and an assist. Sophomore Hannah Frey contributed two goals, while senior Xan Weitzel added a goal and two assists.
“Everyone has to be a factor,” Robertshaw said. “We keep working on it in practice and I’m hoping that what they’re doing in practice . . . will show up in the games.”
Robertshaw said the Terriers’ hard work will have a better chance to pay off in their non-conference matchup against Syracuse this Saturday.
“I think we’re going to look to have a little bit more possession time against Syracuse,” Robertshaw said. “Our defense is ready to step up and hold, and really do a good job of playing well for 60 minutes with our goaltender Rachel Klein&-she’s playing great. We need a full 60 minutes out of her.”
Despite the second-half slug against Dartmouth, Robertshaw was pleased overall with Wednesday’s performance.
“We’re not going to have a lot of changes [from Wednesday],” she said. “We played a nice game against Dartmouth. They’re a good team. They’re having a very good year.
“We had our best first half of the entire year in the first half of Dartmouth both on attack as well as defensively. We want to take from that and learn from that and bring it to the field on Saturday.”
Syracuse has a decent frontline of its own. According to the latest NCAA women’s lacrosse rankings released Monday, Syracuse junior attacker Tee Ladouceur and senior Christina Dove rank among the national leaders in points per game.
“We need to slow them down,” Robertshaw said. “This is a fast team. They are very good goal scorers. I’ve seen them play personally. They’re smart, they’re quick . . . our defense just has to have a good day. They need to go hard, they need to play together for 60 minutes, and everyone else [needs to be] there to support them.”
This non-conference match will be good practice for tough competition in the rest of the season.
“We’ve tested ourselves more so than any other season at BU,” Robertshaw said. “These are teams that you could see in the postseason. They get you ready for the ups and downs of conference play . . . We want to put ourselves in a position where we can battle for the championship and it starts with all of these games. You need to play tough competition so that you’re ready for conference.”
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