The Boston University lacrosse team, voted in the America East coaches’ preseason poll to win its seventh straight AE title this year, will open its 2011 season against University of Massachusetts on Wednesday at Nickerson Field.
The Terriers’ 2010 season ended with a 14-9 loss to University of Pennsylvania in the first round of the NCAA tournament, as they finished with an 11-9 overall record. Before that, they captured their sixth straight conference title by taking down the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in an 11-10 battle on May 8.
Fifth-year coach Liz Robertshaw’s BU squad lost 10 players from last year’s team to graduation, including its three top scorers and its starting goalkeeper, Rachel Klein, but Robertshaw said she looks forward to seeing what the combination of newcomers and returning players seeing increased time can do this year.
“This team has taken the approach that it’s a new team in a new year,” Robertshaw said. “I’m very excited to see what we can do on the field. They’ve been working hard both on and off the field and I’ve seen some great things during the preseason.”
After the departure of a senior class that was among the strongest in the conference, BU’s new tri-captains – senior midfielder Rachel Collins, senior attack Catie Tilton and junior attack Molly Swain – will try to fill the void.
Tilton was a solid source of scoring for the Terriers last year with 21 points in 19 games, nine of which she started. Swain didn’t start at all in her sophomore season but contributed three points off the bench, and Collins, who was named AE Championship Most Outstanding Player last year, started all 20 games and also put up 21 points.
“Rachel, Molly and Catie are excellent leaders and great student-athletes who will lead this year’s squad,” Robertshaw said. “They will complement each other well both on and off the field and, along with a strong senior class, make a great leadership group.”
UMass has already played two games this year, beating College of the Holy Cross 12-10 in overtime on Feb. 16 and University of Vermont 17-9 on Feb. 19. The Minutewomen finished last season with a 10-10 record after a loss to Stanford University in the first round of the NCAA tournament, remarkably similar to the Terriers’ experience in 2010.
Like the Terriers, the Minutewomen are defending conference champions in the Atlantic-10, seeking their third straight title this year. They were also favored by conference coaches in the preseason poll to pick up another banner, getting four first-place votes to edge out University of Richmond, which received three first-place votes and won the A-10 regular-season championship in 2010.
Senior attack Jackie Lyons leads UMass in scoring through its first two games, with five goals and four assists for nine total points.
Behind her is senior midfielder Haley Smith with seven goals, including four against Vermont. Lyons led the Minutewomen in scoring last year with 69 points, and Smith finished seventh with 13.
In net for UMass is junior Katie Florence, who has posted a 9.05 goals-against average and a .558 save percentage through two games. Last year, Florence finished with a 10.34 GAA and a .431 save percentage in 19 starts.
BU is 7-10 all-time against the Minutewomen, although during Robertshaw’s time here the team is 3-1. They have started their season against UMass in each of the last eight years, and won last year’s opener 10-8 behind four goals from then-senior attack Traci Landy.
Landy, one of those top three senior scorers for BU last year, has moved on, and Wednesday’s game will be the new-look Terriers’ first chance to show how they compare to last year’s championship-winning team.
After Wednesday’s game, the Terriers will have an unusually long six-day break before traveling to Providence to play Brown University.
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