Men’s lacrosse opens season against Mercer

The forecast has called for snow for the past two weeks, and there’s more on the way, but spring is close to sprung in terms of athletics as the Boston University men’s lacrosse team opens up its second season as a varsity program.

The Terriers will play host to Mercer University on Saturday afternoon, the very same Mercer squad they lost to 17-6 to begin their inaugural season last year Feb. 8, 2014. However, the situation this year isn’t the same for BU.

Most of the members of the team last season were freshmen — understandable for a program in its first year — and now have an extra year of collegiate lacrosse behind them. Despite the fact that the roster is still mostly comprised of underclassmen, BU coach Ryan Polley said there is a level of experience now present that may not have existed in the previous season.

“We’re hoping a year of experience playing against some of the great teams we played against last year will help us through the course of the game to make better decisions, to take care of the ball better, to execute a little bit better both offensively and defensively,” said BU coach Ryan Polley. “Honestly, we just want to play, continue to get better, grow the program and get better as the season progresses.”

Mercer is not in the Terriers’ conference, but there is a level of familiarity because of last year. Polley said some guys might cover the same players they did last time around against the Bears, and that the previous experience against goalkeeper Mike Nugent will help in the weekend’s tilt.

“Their goalie’s excellent, and we got a feel for shooting on him and the shots that we took that maybe we shouldn’t have taken because he was going to save them,” he said. “We talked about things that we did really well last year in the first game and the things that we didn’t just do well, so we’re certainly excited to welcome them to Boston.”

Sophomore attack Pat Myers led BU last time out against the Bears, notching two goals and an assist. The Terriers also got tallies from sophomores midfielder Cal Dearth, attack Adam Schaal and attack Clay Phillips.

And while the Terriers-Bears showdown a year ago ended with BU losing by an 11-mark margin, the result wasn’t indicative of how the scarlet and white played for the remainder of their schedule.

Though they only recorded two wins on the season, the Terriers were involved in many close losses and challenged highly touted teams on multiple occasions. Offense was sometimes hard to come by, as BU averaged 7.21 goals scored per game, but having a strong force between the pipes in sophomore goaltender Christian Carson-Banister kept the Terriers right on their opponents’ heels.

Carson-Banister was sixth in the nation last year in terms of saves per game, stopping an average of 12.08 and ranked 17th in countrywide save percentage with .545.

BU was also formidable at the dot last season, as sophomore faceoff specialist Sam Talkow ended the 2014 campaign ranked 19th in the country in win percentage, taking 56.7 percent of his opportunities. Against Mercer last year, Talkow went 15-for-21, good for a .714 success rate.

For Polley, one of the biggest issues for the team coming out of last year was turnovers, which is a result of questionable decision-making with the ball. BU was last in the Patriot League for turnovers per game with 18.93.

With a year of Division I play under most of the roster’s belts, Polley said these issues will likely fade away with more play.

“We’re just really focusing on our process and not worrying too much about our outcome,” he said. “We’re of the belief that if we do the right thing and we stay process-oriented, that’s going to give us the best chance to win.”