Field hockey goes goes 1–1 against Albany, Connecticut

It was more of the same this past weekend for the No. 12 Boston University field hockey team as they played two tough games this weekend.

Their first game was against No. 23 University at Albany on Friday night. The Terriers (7–4, 1–0 America East) traveled to the capital of the Empire State and won 2–1 in a close battle on the road.

In the game against the Great Danes (5–6, 0–1 America East), BU hurt itself by getting three straight cards, leading to Albany scoring the game’s first goal in the 58th minute.

Fortunately for the Terriers, they were able to recover from the small 1–0 deficit a few minutes later as senior midfielder Macey Gaumond tied the game with a goal in the 62nd minute.

In the 66th minute, senior forward Tabi Hatch put in the go-ahead goal, giving BU a 2–1 lead over Albany, a lead it held for the remainder of the game.

Because of her strong play Hatch was named America East player of the week.

BU returned home to take on the No. 5 University of Connecticut in what would turn out to be a controversial game at Jordan Field on a cold Sunday afternoon.

Similar to Friday, BU fell behind early against the Huskies (11–0). In the sixth minute, graduate student Louisa Buddy scored Connecticut’s first goal and 24 minutes later, freshman Hayley Hoge put her team ahead 2–0, a lead the Huskies held going into the half.

While the Terriers went down 2–0 early, they put pressure on Connecticut, but as head coach Sally Starr said after the game “[they] were just unlucky”.

Midway through the first half the Terriers had a shot on Connecticut’s goal that appeared as if it went in, but the referees disagreed and said it did not go in.

At the beginning of the second half, BU seemed as though it would not put up much of a fight as the Huskies kept pushing into Boston territory. After a few minutes of getting back into the swing of things, it seemed as if a switch went off in the Terriers as they started to push into Huskies territory. Freshman forward Sofi Laurito, who did not score a goal in Sunday’s game, was up and down the field, controlling the ball all night, led the offensive charge.

At the start of the 44th minute, freshman forward Rachel Coll set up junior midfielder Ella Gunson for a goal to cut the Connecticut lead in half. However, the Huskies responded 14 minutes later with a goal by sophomore Chloe Hunnable. Senior goalkeeper Jess Maroney made a great stop on Hunnable’s shot, but it took an unlucky bounce into the goal, thus expanding Connecticut’s lead back to two.

“The third goal was unlucky for us, it was a weak outlet and we created that dangerous situation” Starr said about Hunnable’s goal.

With eight minutes remaining in the game, junior Madeline Hackett scored a goal that brought BU within one of the Huskies again.

From that point on, it seemed as if BU was going to defy the odds and make a comeback. The small crowd at Jordan Field was beginning to get louder as the team continued to penetrate into Connecticut’s circle.

The game reached its pinnacle in the final two minutes when BU got three straight corners. Unfortunately, the Terriers failed to capitalize on any of these opportunities. Their best chance came on their final attempt, but Connecticut’s goalie made a spectacular diving save that allowed her team to escape with a 3–2 victory and remain undefeated.

“We created opportunities, Connecticut is an outstanding team, but we competed, we competed well against them and I think we got unlucky,” Starr said. “I was really proud of our resilience to come back, to get the two goals, to make it competitive. I loved how we had the corners at the end of the game trying to tie it. It was a very gutsy, good performance against a good team.”