Coming off a loss to the University of Denver, the Boston University women’s lacrosse team won a 9-8 overtime thriller Wednesday against the College of Holy Cross in Worcester.
In their second game in conference play, the Terriers (4-3, 2-0 Patriot League) struggled early on as they gave up five quick goals with senior Laura Ryan and attack Kate Martino scoring three and two, respectively.
However, BU partially closed the gap at the end of the half, thanks in large part to two goals by senior attack Kelsey Marafioti, one of which was in the final three seconds. The Terriers channeled that momentum to the second half and overtime, outscoring the Crusaders (2-7, 2-1 Patriot League) 6-3.
After not scoring in the first half, BU’s leading goal scorer, redshirt junior attack Mallory Collins, helped lead the charge by scoring two goals, giving her 20 on the year. Sophomore attack Taylor Hardison had her best game of the year, scoring two of her three goals of the season. Her game-winning second tally was assisted by junior midfielder Sofia Robins.
BU coach Liz Robertshaw credited her team’s late goals to execution from practice.
“This week, we worked on a lot of two-minute drills, and they came into play today, both with the work [junior defenseman] Remy Nolan did to get the ball and score the tying goal and with Taylor Hardison’s goal in a man-up situation,” she said. “It was a textbook feed from Sofia Robins, and Taylor did her job by scoring.”
Robertshaw also said she was proud of her team’s fortitude after being down in the first half.
“The team fought hard today in really tough weather conditions to battle back against a strong Holy Cross team,” she said. “I thought we were a bit tentative on our attacking end in the first half, but we showed aggressiveness in the second half and saw good goal scoring by a variety of players.”
BU remains undefeated in the Patriot League and moved a game above .500 for the season. The Terriers have won three of their last four games and beat a surging Holy Cross team.
The Crusaders struggled earlier in the season but had been hot in Patriot League play coming into their matchup with BU, as they were undefeated in conference play. Holy Cross’s recent strong play is largely due to the efforts of Ryan and Martino, who Robertshaw said she knew would be a handful coming into the matchup.
But after the first half, BU shut the two of them down with only Martino scoring in the second half. The Terriers limited Holy Cross’s offense as a whole, as they only allowed three goals in the second half.
“[Ryan and Martino] are very good players, and I think in the second half, we had better doubling opportunities against them and a greater sense of urgency when they had the ball,” she said. “It was a good defensive adjustment made by our players.”
Another factor in the second half defense was sophomore goalie Caroline Meegan. After being named Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week for the week of March 9, she had another solid game. Second in the Patriot League in saves per game, Meegan saved eight goals against the Crusaders, which is around her average of 8.43 saves per game, giving her 59 stops on the year.
Robertshaw said her team will go as Meegan goes.
“Caroline’s confidence and play instills confidence in our team and allows both our defensive and attacking units to go out and take more chances,” she said. “I know she wasn’t happy about some of the goals that went in today, and we’ll continue working tomorrow to get better, but I like that sense of ‘it’s not good enough’ coming from her. It tells me she has higher aspirations for herself.”
