Despite senior attack Erica Baumgartner’s program-record 109th assist in the second half, University of New Hampshire midfielder Hayley Rausch netted her career-high fifth goal of the game in triple overtime to seal a 13-12 victory for UNH over the Boston University lacrosse team on Wednesday.
The loss snaps a three-game Terrier win streak and is their first loss in America East Conference play.
“UNH played a very good game. They never quit and they went hard at us the whole time,” BU coach Liz Robertshaw said. “I give them credit for that, because we didn’t do the same.”
The Terriers (6-5, 2-1 AE) surrendered the first goal of the game before scoring four straight to take a 4-1 lead 8:57 into the first half. At halftime, BU still led the Wildcats (6-5, 1-1) 8-5, and were outshooting them 16-10.
Despite their advantage in the first half, UNH outplayed BU in the second frame. The Wildcats outshot the Terriers 16-9 and outscored them 7-4, evening the score at 12 going into overtime.
BU won the draw control in all three overtimes, but failed to score on its possessions each time. In the third overtime, Rausch scored with 38 seconds remaining to hand the Terriers their first America East loss.
“We drew up the game plan of what we wanted to occur, we got the looks we wanted, but we just didn’t score,” Robertshaw said. “When you have four, five, even six opportunities to put a game away and you don’t succeed, the game is not going to go in your favor.”
The Terriers’ scoring was very balanced, as six different players tallied goals. Junior attack Hannah Frey scored the only hat trick for BU, while senior attack Erica Baumgartner, junior attack Molly Swain, sophomore attack Danielle Etrasco, and freshman midfielder Sydney Godett scored two goals apiece.
“I think it’s important to have a well balanced attack, but at the end of the day we just have to score one more than our opponents, and that’s something we didn’t do today,” Robertshaw said.
Creating most of the offense for UNH were Rausch and junior midfielder Kate Keagins. Keagins finished the game with two goals and two assists, along with a game-high four caused turnovers. Rausch added an assist to her five goals, and gave the Terrier defense trouble all game long.
“They took shots,” Robertshaw said.
“I give them credit for it because they took some solid shots on [freshman goalkeeper] Christina [Sheridan]. It’s nothing wrong with Christina, but they just knew where to shoot and they followed the game plan.”
Sheridan got another start in cage for the Terriers, and made 11 saves in the loss. This total is one below her career high of 12 saves, also in a losing effort earlier this season to Notre Dame.
This is not the first BU game this year to go into triple overtime. On Mar. 12, BU defeated George Mason at home, 10-9, after three overtimes when Baumgartner scored the game-winner.
BU will look to bounce back from this loss in a non-conference game on April 13 at cross-town rival Boston College. The Eagles are 8-4, and should be a tough test for BU coming off of this loss.
“They’re a great team. They are playing the best lacrosse they have played in years,” Robertshaw said.
“They want the game, and we have to see a change in our team right now. It’s something we are going to work on in the next couple days, and I expect a good BU team to show up.”
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.
