The Boston University Women’s lacrosse team were successful in securing a victory over the University of New Hampshire. Even though the Terriers (8-7, 5-3 Patriot League) won, the Wildcats (3-13) played a much more competitive game than their record would indicate.
Like the rest of its disappointing season the Wildcats could not seal the victory. Thanks to the help of some stellar individual performances, the Terriers were able to pull out the tough 16-11 victory Wednesday night at Wildcat Stadium.
Down 7-5 going into halftime, BU was able to complete its comeback victory courtesy of career-best efforts from freshman attacker Kailey Conry and senior goalkeeper Caroline Meegan.
Conry had the Patriot League’s best individual offensive performance this season (11 points, career-high three goals and eight assists), while Meegan’s 17 saves surpassed former Terrier Rachel Klein as the program’s career leader in saves (191).
The career-defining showings from the duo helped BU make up for its slower start to the game.
New Hampshire recovered from a 2-0 deficit with goals from junior midfielder Carly Wooters, senior attacker Devon Croke and freshman midfielder Rylee Leonard to take a 3-2 lead at the 20:39 mark.
BU junior attacker Mickenzie Larivee equalized the game at 3-3 just 20 seconds later, only for UNH to answer back once again.
Courtesy of Croke’s first-half hat trick and additional assistance from both Leonard and junior attacker Krissy Schafer, the Wildcats scored four of the game’s next five goals to reclaim the lead at 7-4 with 7:11 remaining.
Senior attacker Elisabeth Jayne’s strike with 6:43 left cut New Hampshire’s lead to two at intermission.
BU head coach Liz Robertshaw said she was not caught off-guard by the Wildcats’ strong form to begin.
“UNH is an aggressive, fast-paced, blue-collar team … and their record does not reflect the way [they] play,” Robertshaw said. “We knew that going into the game that they were going to come at us hard … I told my team after, ‘That’s a tough team, and that’s a good win for us.’ Take away the record, [and] that used to be our major conference rival. And to go in there with that sort of emotion and play a good game is a great thing.”
After Meegan notched her 182nd career save with seven seconds remaining in the first half to usurp Klein, Conry’s breakout effort was next on the Terriers agenda.
Conry’s score 73 seconds into the second half trimmed the Wildcats lead to 7-6, but the Needham native did not stop there.
That strike began a five-goal stretch in which Conry scored or assisted on three of the goals. Her tiebreaking and hat-trick sealing goal with 13:25 remaining helped BU regain a 11-10 lead.
From there, the game might as well have been dubbed, “The Kailey Conry Show.”
Besides junior attacker Avery Donohoe’s lone effort at the 11:12 mark, for the last 11 minutes of the game, Conry assisted on all four of BU’s final goals.
Her assist with 8:56 remaining helped Larivee tie Croke and Leonard with a game-high four goals, and closed out the Terriers’ comeback victory assisting on junior Taylor Hardison’s goal at the 3:01 mark.
Wildcat sophomore midfielder Anna Vogt added a strike with 17 seconds left in the affair, but that was an afterthought to what was accomplished by Conry that night.
Her eight assists and 11 points are tied for the fourth and sixth highest single-game totals in the country this season, and was the first double-digits points getter since former Terrier Danielle Etrasco’s 12 against Ohio State University on March 16, 2013.
Robertshaw had an inkling Conry would perform well against UNH, but not of this magnitude.
“Kailey had a monster game today,” Robertshaw said. “It was awesome to see. It was actually funny. I joked with her before the game about her scoring a ton of points and she was like, ‘Yeah, okay’ … And to have her do it today, I did not expect it … I knew she had it in her, and I think it’s something that we have to keep pushing her to new heights because it helps our team.”
While the Terriers’ road performances this season have seen massive highs and lows, Robertshaw is nonetheless impressed with her team’s desire to win this close to postseason play.
“It shows character and grit that a team can go on the road mid-week and win a game like today [against UNH],” Robertshaw said. “It shows that the team’s really locked in to getting that win, whether we’re home or on the road. I’ve been impressed with them that they’ve been able to do this.”
