The Boston University women’s lacrosse team was bounced from postseason play after its 14-7 loss to Loyola University Maryland on Friday.
Coming off a close quarterfinal victory against Lehigh University on Tuesday, BU (8-9, 5-3 Patriot League) couldn’t capitalize on its momentum enough to slow down conference powerhouse Loyola (14-4, 8-0 Patriot League).
Loyola went on a full attack of BU in the beginning, taking a 5-0 lead before letting up its lone goal of the half when freshman attack Mickenzie Larivee found the back of the net for her sixth of the season.
The Terriers had a rough time scoring, as BU coach Liz Robertshaw alluded to.
“On offense, we got a lot more looks at cage but struggled with our accuracy to finish those shots in the first half,” she said.
Robertshaw added that her team was a little too passive to keep up with Loyola’s offense.
“It was a tough first half for us offensively in regards to hitting our stride and finishing shots,” she said. “I thought we did a good job of creating opportunity, but I think we were a little too tentative to dodge hard or feed looks against Loyola’s defense, and that hurt us.”
In the second half, BU’s attempts at a comeback fell short as the closest it would come was shortening the Greyhound lead to four after three Terrier goals in a matter of two minutes from freshman attack Avery Donahoe and redshirt junior attack Mallory Collins.
However, the Terriers would only go on to score three more times while the Greyhounds would coast to score six more times.
Loyola’s offense was led by its two leading scorers, senior attacks Hannah Schmitt and Kara Burke, who scored three and five goals each for their 45th and 48th tallies on the season.
“Defensively, we had a harder time containing Loyola’s top three scorers Kara Burke, Hannah Schmitt and Annie Thomas than in our first meeting,” Robertshaw said. “I don’t know if it was the more aggressive team mentality we had that ended up hurting us because we at times extended too far out, or didn’t stick to our player matchups, or if it was simply a tough day for us on defense, one verse one.”
The loss means the end of the postseason for the Terriers after an up-and-down season where they’ve seen a lot to build on in the future, such as sophomore goalie Caroline Meegan. The Timonium, Maryland native recorded eight saves against Loyola, giving her 139 on the season, and she also led the Patriot League in saves per game with 8.29.
Collins also played well this game, leading her team in scoring with three goals, giving her 38 on the season.
BU will end its season against Boston College on Saturday and Robertshaw said she is looking to end the year on a positive note.
“I told the team this game has a lot of significance to the future of our program — who we are and where we want this program to go,” she said. “This is a BU-BC game, and that in itself has a serious meaning to it. This is also a match up against a top-ranked team who is going to make it into the NCAA Tournament, and how we compete and battle against them will lay the groundwork for who this team is and what our mindset will be going into the off-season.”
