Women’s lacrosse already prepping for 2015 season

Four months removed from a Patriot League Tournament championship game appearance, Boston University women’s lacrosse coach Liz Robertshaw is just happy to have her team back on Commonwealth Avenue and on the playing field.

“As we go through the summer and we’re doing a lot of recruiting and we’re seeing a lot of the young faces and we’re watching a lot of lacrosse, I get excited to get back on campus to work with the girls,” Robertshaw said. “Especially when you get to August when it’s really slow on campus, you start to really want to get the players back on campus and get started.”

Indeed, BU missed out on the NCAA Tournament by just one win last season. Led by senior attack Lindsay Weiner’s team-leading 42 points and 20 assists, the Terriers won nine games and reached their first-ever Patriot League Tournament as a No. 3 seed.

After defeating Lehigh University and then the No. 2 seed in the United States Naval Academy in a thrilling 13-12 contest, BU made it all the way to the tournament title game against top-seeded Loyola University-Maryland. Robertshaw said the team is looking forward to getting back to the championship game and making an even deeper run into the postseason in 2015.

“You want to make it back to that championship game. We’d like to win a conference tournament and make the NCAA Tournament,” Robertshaw said. “That’s going to be a goal every year at BU, with the tradition of the program. It’s a new opportunity for us to get there.

“If we look for the day-to-day operations, we really want to make sure we’re getting better as lacrosse players and members of the community. We want to do a good job of being the best team we can be.”

To take hold of the conference title, however, will be no easy task for the Terriers. A strong group of seniors, including three of the team’s six leading scorers, graduated after the 2014 season. Replacing them will be a group of nine freshmen, four of which were named U.S. Lacrosse All-Americans or honorable mentions during their high school careers.

Robertshaw said the strong group of newcomers has lofty goals for themselves in their rookie campaigns.

“I want to get [the freshmen] used to the college game as quickly as possible,” Roberstshaw said. “There’s a lot of talent in this group. I think they come in with a lot of expectations for themselves. They want to get on the field, they want to play, they want to compete and they want to see what they can bring to the table.”

While the Terriers will have to rely on some of the young blood this season, there are 21 veteran players coming back from last year, including Weiner and junior midfielder Jill Horka, whose 24 caused turnovers led the team. The returning corps will play a valuable role on the field, while also being a vital asset for the freshman class off the field.

“We have a system in place. It’s called a wing man system, where [the freshmen] are paired up with another member of the team, and they do everything from showing them how to get to class to how to put their laundry in and get it done away from home,” Robertshaw said. “It’s really important that they have this system to try and get them comfortable…Our veterans do a fantastic job of making them feel this is home.”

The spring season is still five months away from starting, but the Terriers still have some important games over the next few weeks. The team’s fall schedule includes a contest against the University of Louisville, which will provide a good evaluation tool for Robertshaw and her staff.

“I really just want to see how different people work together,” she said. “And I want to see different player combinations. We lost in our senior class — starters. Every single one of them was either a starter or first off the bench. And so there are holes on our team, and I want to see who’s going to take them.”