Following a 10-9 victory over the College of the Holy Cross, the Boston University women’s lacrosse team will face off against the United States Military Academy on Saturday afternoon in West Point, New York.
Wednesday night’s win was key for the Terriers (6-7, 4-3 Patriot League), who now have clinched a playoff berth and could advance to a higher seed before the season ends.
While BU won the game, head coach Liz Robertshaw felt that the Terriers could have played better against a team that was 1-5 in league play heading into the matchup.
“I don’t think we played particularly well,” Robertshaw said. “They brought their best game, as will Army, as will American, and we have to make sure that we bring ours against them. Obviously statistics will tell you which teams should win, but the beauty of athletics is whoever shows up and plays the best game, that’s who’s going to win.”
I’ve been preaching that to the team, and I think last night’s game against a really feisty Holy Cross team sent that message to the team”.
The Terriers will look to continue to build momentum, as Army (5-10, 1-6 Patriot League) has struggled mightily during league play. Their first and only win came against Colgate University on Wednesday night, a team who has also struggled to find wins against Patriot League opponents, and is now on a six-game losing streak.
Last season, the Terriers topped the Black Knights in a 14-3 victory for the Terriers during the 2016 season. However, the Terriers were powered to this win by midfielder Remy Nolan and attacker Mallory Collins, both of whom graduated from BU in 2016. The Terriers will need to find new leaders to lead them to victory, such as senior and junior attackers Elisabeth Jayne and Mickenzie Larivee.
Larivee and Jayne lead the team in goals with 28 and 26, respectively, and have been key players for the Terriers all season long. Larivee scored three goals in the Terriers’ previous game, while Jayne scored one.
BU will also look to freshman attacker Kailey Conry who leads the Patriot League with 2.92 assists per game. Conry delivered two goals and three assists against the Crusaders (6-9, 1-6 Patriot League) on Wednesday night, and will surely look to build upon this performance in BU’s penultimate regular season league game.
“We’ve been looking for Kailey to be one of our offensive playmakers all year,” Robertshaw said. “It’s why she leads the team in points as a freshman. I think it gets overlooked a little bit … I was pleased that she took the ball to cage and did well. We’re looking for [senior and junior attackers] Taylor Hardison, Avery Donahoe, all of our crease players to do that”.
While Army has struggled as a team, they do have several standout players that the Terriers will need to contain. Sophomore midfielder Manuela Cortes has netted a team-best 39 goals, and junior midfielder Rachel Hornick is not far behind with 37.
Robertshaw is well aware of Cortes and Hornick, and is looking to throw them off their game, as well as execute strong team defense.
“We’re definitely looking to slow down the leading scorers,” Robertshaw said. “From a one-on-one perspective, you’re going to see [senior] Janelle Macone, our top markup player, on one of them, but then I think it does come down to playing good team defense. All seven defenders, including [senior goalkeeper] Caroline Meegan in cage, need to be locked down on every one of their players.”
With just two games left in league play, the Terriers are just one game back from moving from the fifth to the third seed in the Patriot League Tournament, but Robertshaw is not concerned with seeding.
“We’re not worried about the seeding, that’ll take care of itself,” Robertshaw said. “We need to focus on playing a better game. We want to be better today than we were yesterday, and continue that progress so we feel that going into the tournament, we’re playing our best lacrosse.”
