Xan-tastic

There was never a sliver of doubt.

Saturday’s game between the Boston University lacrosse team and the University of Vermont, a game in which the Terriers thrashed the Catamounts 19-8, was from start to finish the seniors’ day.

Led by a career-high six goals from senior attacker McKinley Curro and a program record-tying seven assists from senior attacker Xan Weitzel, the Terriers (9-7, 5-0) never gave the Catamounts (4-10, 1-4) much of a chance by netting a season-high 19. Senior attacker Traci Landy added three goals and two assists, and senior attacker Jenny Taft, in the first start of her career at BU, notched a hat trick of her own. The trio of senior goal-scorers notched the Terriers’ first seven goals with Weitzel assisting on three of those.

“I thought every single senior played a great game,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “I certainly appreciated having production from all of our seniors and some record days for McKinley and Xan and personal bests for Jenny Taft. I feel that that was a great day.”

The day was particularly big for Weitzel, who doesn’t quite receive the attention of her goal-scoring teammates like Curro and Landy because of her assist-heavy statistics. Despite falling only one short of breaking the program record for assists in a game, she pulled within 11 assists of the program record for a career.

“What she does is so underrated by so many people, and that’s something we value at BU and that’s something that’s been a real strong suit of mine since I came here,” Robertshaw said. “Her ability to read the game and to assist the goals and the amount of goals she does per year is huge. We would not be the kind of attacking team that we are if players like Xan Weitzel weren’t with us.”

The seniors on the offensive end weren’t the only ones to perform though on Saturday. The Terriers defense, led by senior midfielder Jenny Martin and senior defenders Caitlin Defliese and Caitlin Webb, held strong, allowing over a goal less than its 9.48 season average.

“Defensively, all of our seniors played well,” Robertshaw said. “Jenny Martin, Caitlin Defliese and Caitlin Webb were big. They made big stops, and they held a pretty good Vermont team to a lower outcome. I was thrilled with the energy they brought, the passion they brought and how well they played.”

Senior goalkeeper Rachel Klein added to the defensive effort as she made eight saves on 14 shots on goal before being spelled by freshman Kim Elsworth for the final 20 minutes, when BU extended its lead to double digits for the first time. Elsworth made the most of her time, making a career-high three stops.

Although the BU seniors made 12 of the team’s 19 goals and 21 of the team’s 31 points, they certainly weren’t the only ones to contribute.
Junior midfielder Rachel Collins, sophomore attacker Hannah Frey and freshman midfielder Kristen Mogavero each added two goals. The other goal came from the stick of redshirt sophomore attacker Catie Tilton.

The all-around from the Terriers sets up their biggest of the game of the season thus far at the University at Albany this Saturday. With Albany’s 13-12 win over the University of New Hampshire on Saturday, both teams will enter Saturday’s contest undefeated in America East with the winner earning the honor of regular-season champion. BU has held that position for the past five seasons, but the team isn’t paying as much to attention to the accolade it is to the rewards.

“More importantly rather than any titles, it’s for who gets to host the America East Championships,” Robertshaw said. “That’s one of our goals that we really want to go after. We want to host, but we have to get through a very difficult Albany team. I’m sure they’re thinking the same thing about us.

“It’s going to be a great game, an exciting game, and it’s something that we’re going to spend all week focusing on. We’re not thinking about postseason. We’re not thinking about anything else except for playing Albany on Saturday.”