The Boston University lacrosse team held on to a slim lead to upset No. 9/15 University of Dartmouth by a score of 9-7 on Wednesday at Nickerson Field. The Terriers never trailed in the game, but never led by more than three goals in their rout of the undefeated Big Green.
Coming into the game, BU (2-2) had lost two of its first three matchups, and had just returned from an 11-15 road loss to William &Mary College. Dartmouth (3-1) entered the game undefeated, winning their first three games with impressive defensive play. “I think the fact that the girls can come in against a very talented, strong, and a really good Dartmouth team, I think this gave us confidence that we can upset a team,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw. “We can come out there and we can play with anybody if we play our game.”
BU began the game quickly, with senior attack Erica Baumgartner and junior attack Hannah Frey notching goals in the first five minutes. From there the teams traded goals until the half when the Terriers were up 6-4.
However, the slim lead was erased early in the second half when the Big Green tallied two consecutive goals to tie the game at six. The momentum was with Dartmouth early in the second half, as they had shut out the Terrier offense for over 26 consecutive minutes since their sixth goal.
However, junior attack Catie Tilton broke that streak with 16:44 remaining in the second half, which started a surge of two more BU goals.
“We went back to what we knew we had to do,” Robertshaw said. “I could see some of the girls were getting a little tight, and thinking that they had to score goals, and I said ‘it’s not about scoring goals, it’s about possessing the ball and taking time away from Dartmouth having it’.”
Despite Dartmouth scoring another goal, they were never able to regain momentum and the Terriers killed the rest of the clock to seal the victory. Freshman goalkeeper Christina Sheridan impressed the crowd in her first collegiate start with nine key saves that kept the talented Dartmouth offense at bay. While this was not Sheridan’s first action, she held her composure and only allowed two of eight Dartmouth free positions past her.
“You look at Christina Sheridan starting, it was a rock star performance from her,” Robertshaw said. “She did some great things.”
The key to the victory for BU was ball possession, as the Terriers successfully kept Dartmouth away from their net with good offensive patience. BU controlled the flow of the game using their generally mistake-free passing.
“We got a lot of possession, which was much better than we did against William & Mary,” Robertshaw said. “It was something we have been trying to focus on.”
The goal-scoring for the Terriers was widely distributed, as eight different players scored goals. In fact, the only BU player to score two goals was sophomore midfielder Kristen Mogavero, who did not even start the game.
“I think it gave other people confidence that they can score,” Robertshaw said. “Danielle [Etrasco] is going to start to get double-teamed and triple-teamed and other people are going to have to step up, and it shows that they will.”
With the win over Dartmouth, BU has brought their record back to .500, and they will look to improve upon that on Saturday against George Mason University. Despite defeating such a highly ranked opponent on Wednesday, BU knows that they cannot let up.
“There is no way we are taking George Mason lightly,” Robertshaw said. “We want that win, but it is something we have to earn.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
