With five wins in a row and a current position atop the America East standings, the Boston University lacrosse team will host the University of New Hampshire on Wednesday afternoon at Nickerson Field.
BU coach Liz Robertshaw again focused on the details as she described what she thinks her team needs to do to continue the streak.
“Getting ball possessions, getting draw controls,” Robertshaw said. “Slowing down our opponents attack-wise [are things we need to focus on].”
The Terriers (6-4, 2-0 America East) return to Boston after coming from behind to win 12-11 on a game-winning goal from senior midfielder Annie Stookesberry in the final 16:28 at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County on Saturday. Junior attack Danielle Etrasco scored four goals and assisted on two more. Senior attack Molly Swain, junior midfielder Kristen Mogavero and freshman attack Mallory Collins each scored twice. Sophomore goalkeeper Christina Sheridan played all 60 minutes and made seven saves.
Prior to the trip to central Maryland, BU beat the University of Vermont at Nickerson Field on the preceding Saturday, also with a late-game run. Wins at the University of California, at Saint Mary’s College and over Yale University at home round out BU’s streak.
To begin the season, UNH (3-6, 1-1 America East) lost four straight games against Dartmouth University and the University of Connecticut at home, and the University of Massachusetts and Stanford University on the road. The team’s first win came at Fresno State University on March 14, 14-7. It lost another non-conference game after that to Fairfield University.
The Wildcats are an even .500 through their two America East games thus far this spring. They beat Binghamton University 16-9, but lost at the University of Vermont 18-8. In between, they beat Vanderbilt University 12-11 to put together their only win streak of the year.
Junior Jenny Simpson leads the team with 22 points, 17 of which are goals. Behind her in goals comes senior Kate Keagins with 16 and freshman Laura Puccia with 15. Keagins also leads the team with ground balls (19), draw controls (24) and controlled turnovers (20). Senior Ilana Cohen leads the Wildcats with 11 assists.
The most important challenge Robertshaw said the Wildcats hold for the Terriers is the quality of their shots and attempts.
“We need to limit how many looks they get on cage and the kind of looks they get,” Robertshaw said. “We want to make sure we’re forcing them to double team and to really try to slow them down.”
In net, three goalkeepers have started for the Wildcats. Junior Kathleen O’Keefe tops all statistical categories. She has played in six games and started four, totaling 255:57. She has made 36 saves while allowing 56 goals. Freshman Taylor Hurwitz follows her with six games and three starts, allowing 35 goals and making 21 saves across 156:25. Finally, senior Kate Gunts started two games and played in another, allowing 19 goals and making 16 saves in 127:38.
The last two wins have been in large part the results of late-game efforts from the Terriers, but that doesn’t mean Robertshaw is pleased with the second-half heroics alone.
“I would absolutely like our team to come out stronger from the start of games and establish our defensive stops and be as aggressive as we can be in a positive way,” Robertshaw said. “And then I would like our attackers to come out and be a little bit more . . . finishing and getting some better looks on cage.”
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.
