No. 12 field hockey loses 2–0 to No. 7 Cavaliers, falls to 1–2 on home field

On a sunny Sunday afternoon at Jordan Field, the No.12 Boston University field hockey team played host to the No. 7 University of Virginia Cavaliers in another battle amongst ranked teams.

Entering Sunday’s game, BU (6-3) was looking to build off of a well-earned 3–2 victory in double overtime against No. 25 Massachusetts.

“[We want to] make sure we’re healthy and ready to compete for 70 minutes and to take advantage of scoring opportunities,” BU coach Sally Starr said about her mindset coming into the matchup with the Cavaliers.

At first it seemed as if BU was onto something with its new attack mentality.

The Terriers pushed the ball into Virginia’s territory from the start and was able to put pressure on Virginia’s defense.

They also earned early corners, but failed to execute and knock the ball into the goal.

Following the failed scoring attempts by BU, the Cavaliers made some moves of their own.  Fortunately for the Cavaliers, they were able to covert on their few opportunities.

In the eighth minute, sophomore Rachel Sumfest scored on a shot into the corner of the goal that slipped past sophomore goalkeeper Valentina Cerda Eimbcke.

With 7:35 remaining in the first half, senior Paige Selenski scored and increased Virginia’s lead to 2–0.

“I felt really good about the first half.  We outshot them 8–4, we really had some outstanding scoring opportunities,” Starr said.  “We would have loved to put some of those home.  We’ll be looking at that to see whether it was great goaltending or we just made the goalie look really good.”

Starr said she believes it was a combination of the two.

“I really liked how we created good attack on the field, got four corners as well, and then on the flip side we gave up no corners and this is an extremely good attacking team,” she said. “I was pleased with how we were able to compete with them, particularly in the first half.”

As the second half began, the Terriers did not make many changes.  They kept their starting group out on the field, and stuck with their original strategy solely because lack of execution was the only thing holding them back in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Terriers, it seemed their nemesis began to show itself in the form of fatigue.

“It’s gotten better, it’s gotten a whole lot better,” Starr said about her team’s conditioning. “I think the first half we definitely had a little bit more pop in our legs and a little bit cleaner play. In the second half, I didn’t really feel a big drop like the Syracuse game.  That’s definitely something where we’re improving.”

As time progressed in the second half, BU players were slowing down and letting Virginia control the ball, which hindered their ability to attack the goal.

With about 10 minutes remaining and the score still 2-0, Coach Starr chose took a timeout in an attempt to get a point on the board and hopefully start a quick comeback.

“After the timeout we changed a lot, we moved some people around, really tried to create a right side emphasis, we really felt we had a mismatch with them on our right side,” Starr said. “Maybe we could have done that a little bit earlier, but when it worked, it worked really well, particularly after the timeout.”

Even though they were able to get the ball into Virginia territory following the timeout, the Terriers were unable to get the ball into the goal, or even get a good shot off.

Minutes later, the final horn blew, with BU losing its third game of the year and Virginia winning its ninth.

While BU took the loss, it is not all bad news for the team: on Sunday, the team welcomed freshman Sofi Laurito back onto the field.

“I think getting Sofi back … she’s been injured since the beginning of the Providence game, so I think she really gave us a good spark in the midfield, an area where we need more speed, more athleticism,” Starr said. “I think [getting her back] is a real positive.”