Field hockey beats Holy Cross, falls to UMass

In yet another bittersweet weekend of play, the Boston University field hockey team went 1-1 in its weekend contests, as it faced College of the Holy Cross Friday night in Worcester and then took on the No. 13 University of Massachusetts-Amherst at home Sunday afternoon. BU defeated the Crusaders by a score of 2-0, but fell to the Minutewomen 3-1.

A quick goal from sophomore forward Sofi Laurito put the Terriers (7-4, 2-1 Patriot League) up 1-0 against Holy Cross (3-7, 0-2 Patriot League) in the fourth minute of the game. Laurito dribbled the ball up the right side of the field and all the way to the backboards. She took a shot from the right side of the circle to get the Terriers’ their first goal.

Despite this early lead, BU would not score again until the 69th minute, when freshman midfielder Hester van der Laan lifted her third goal of the season over goalkeeper Kat Matchett after a pass from senior midfielder Anne Fruitema.

“We scored early and we scored easily, and sometimes when that happens, you’re like, ‘oh, this is going to be an easy game,’” said BU coach Sally Starr. “We got way too individualistic, people just started trying to dribble through [Holy Cross] as opposed to playing our really good passing game that we have. We made the game harder on ourselves than it had to be, so I was really pleased that we were able to get that second goal late.”

Junior goalkeeper Valentina Cerda Eimbcke recorded her second shutout of the season, having to make just two saves on the Crusaders’ four shots throughout the game.

BU finished the game with 16 shots on goal, 13 of which came in the first half, and seven attack penalty corners to the Crusaders’ attack penalty corners.

Sunday was a different story for the Terriers, as they fell to UMass (9-4). In the driving rain, the Terriers looked to extend their win streak to three games. BU earned an early penalty stroke in the ninth minute of play that was taken by senior backer Ysi Schieb, but to the Terriers’ dismay, it was saved by goalkeeper Sam Carlino.

Neither team would score in the first half as both teams recorded five shots apiece.

In the second half of play, freshman forward Amanda Cassera broke the scoreless tie in the 38th minute of play as she sent the rebound shot in past Carlino giving the Terriers a 1-0 lead.

“I think Amanda Cassera is getting better and better every game,” Starr said. “She’s really turning into a very dangerous striker through the midfield as well as in the scoring circle.

“The biggest thing for our striker play right now is consistency. We’re young there and, as you get into October, and you get into the middle of October, you’re not young anymore. We’re 11 games into the season now…I think consistency is the biggest thing with our striker line, even with some of our older players. We need more consistency there.”

The lead did not last, as the Minutewomen evened the score and then took the lead with back-to-back corner goals in the 48th and 53rd minutes. Both goals were netted by midfielder Renee Suter, and both were hard drives from the top of the circle into the back right corner of the cage.

In the 55th minute of play, it was UMass’ turn for a penalty stroke. Senior Hannah Prince stepped up to the dot and tried to flick the ball past Eimbcke, who batted it out of the air and kept the score at 2-1.

To cap off the game, the Minutewomen earned an attack penalty corner in the very last minute of play, and scored as the buzzer sounded on a rebound goal from senior Molly MacDonnell to bring the final score to 3-1.

“We tried to bump up,” Starr said. “I think we created some activity in our circle. We got some corners. We just didn’t execute our corners. We had two that I think we could have scored on. One, we stopped ourselves by a poor shot, and the other one, they stepped up and snuffed us.

“I knew UMass would be an excellent game. I knew they were an outstanding team, and for our young team, I think we played well against them. We didn’t get the result that we wanted, but I did feel we really competed well today.”