Lacrosse’s offense improves upon weak performance

After the Boston University women’s lacrosse team dropped a 7-6 overtime contest to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County on March 23, BU coach Liz Robertshaw declared her team’s lack of execution on offense the main culprit for the team’s two-game losing streak.

“It was a very poor offensive showing for us,” Robertshaw said of the performance against UMBC. “From our attacking perspective, there were too many dropped balls, too many missed opportunities and we were a little too casual attack-wise.

“You can’t win games scoring six goals. You’re just not going to win it.”

Ever since the Terriers (3-5, 0-1 America East) scored 15 goals against Ohio State University March 16, their offense has struggled to capitalize. BU only mustered 15 goals over its next two games, dropping both of those games to Boston College and UMBC (7-3, 1-0 America East).

As the Terriers took on Harvard University Friday night, it seemed like more of the same from the offense, as the team went scoreless during the first 15 minutes of play. However, the offense completely turned around in the final 45 minutes of play, outscoring the Crimson (2-6) 12-5 to secure a 12-11 victory and snap the team’s losing streak.

Earlier in the week, Robertshaw said she has challenged some of the younger and less experienced players during practice to step up and assert themselves during games.

“If you take [senior attack] Danielle Etrasco and [senior midfielder] Kristen Mogavero out of the mix, you don’t have a lot of returning experience for us,” Robertshaw said. “Some of the players have been trying to hide themselves, and we’ve kind of called them out and told them that they need to step up and play to the level that we need them to play to win games.”

It seems as if imposing these challenges has paid off, as a number of players contributed to the score sheet by the end of Friday’s game.

While regular contributors such as Etrasco (four goals), Mogavero (two goals) and junior attack Elizabeth Morse (two goals) had a big impact on the offense, other players stepped up to help the Terriers secure the win.

Sophomore attack Kelsey Marafioti scored the first two goals of her career, while junior Sydney Godett also added two tallies, including a free-position score with 11 seconds remaining to give the Terriers the victory. Sophomore attack Jenna Boarman contributed as well, assisting on Marafioti’s first goal of the game.

After the contest, Robertshaw said she was pleased with the effort from her team on offense, especially from players such as Marafioti and Godett.

“In the weeks prior, everyone was always looking to Danielle, but that’s what every opponent is looking at,” Robertshaw said. “We told them, ‘everyone can score, and everyone can be a threat.’ The fact that Kelsey Marafioti had two goals and Sydney Godett was our game winner — those are things [because] everyone trusted [them] to take that shot. It’s huge.”

While the Harvard game may not have been a perfect offensive showing from the Terriers, especially with their slow start, Robertshaw was glad to see the team progressing and moving on from its struggles over the last few weeks.

“In the beginning, we were a little tight,” Robertshaw said. “But I think they’re responding. I don’t think we’re there yet, we’re a work in progress, but I definitely like the fact that you saw different people on that score sheet, and that’s something important to us. “peted well enough this season to earn spots in the NCAA Championships in Iowa. Juniors Nestor Taffur and Kevin Innis, as well as freshman Dane Harlowe, qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Taffur led the Terriers in Des Moines, Iowa, as he took two victories with him in his first appearance at the NCAA Tournament, defeating wrestlers from the Air Force Academy and the University of Wyoming.

Innis and Harlowe rounded out the Terriers at the competition, and they each won one of their three matches.