After coming off their first two losses of the season, the Boston University field hockey team will look to regain their momentum in their next matchup against the University of Connecticut on Sunday afternoon.
Over the weekend, the Terriers (4-2) struggled with their penalty corner defensive execution. Terrier head coach Sally Starr said that it was the team’s “Achilles’ heel,” but remains confident in her squad’s ability to take their weakness and turn them into strengths. She said the coaches are paying extra attention to this aspect of play in their practices this week.
“Our major problem this weekend was definitely our penalty corner defense,” Starr said. “However, not having a game until Sunday, we are able to give the team two days off. The good news is that it is easily fixed with some good video work, some good walkthrough in a practice situation and playing it live in a practice situation. I have full confidence that in the future this will be a real strength for us.”
Sunday’s matchup should be a formidable challenge as the Huskies (5-0) are ranked as the top team in the country. Most recently, the Huskies upended Harvard University by a margin of 3-1 with goals coming from Amanda Collins, Barbara van den Hoogen and Charlotte Veitner.
The Terriers will need to defend Veitner intensely, since she leads her team with a total of 13 points, and she also has six goals and one assist for the season.
BU will look to Preseason Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year junior back Ally Hammel to anchor the team’s defense. She will be joined on the defensive side of things by goalkeepers junior Kathleen Keegan and freshman Millie Baker.
The goalkeeping duo has allowed the second lowest goal total in the Patriot League and currently have a 1.17 goals against average per game.
Starr is quick to note UConn’s success so far this year, especially their ability to find the back of the net.
“They are an outstanding team, they are scoring a bundle of goals against pretty much all of the opposition, they are ranked number one in the country right now for a good reason, they are really just outstanding,” Starr said.
Getting points on the board has been another struggle for the Terriers so far, Starr said. However, the team will continue to look for freshman Ailsa Connolly, who has been a rock for the Terriers this season, leading the team with three goals for the season.
Starr noted that although the effort is there in creating good opportunities for scoring, it will be another major aspect of what they will work on in practice.
“We are creating good goal scoring opportunities but we are not finishing on them, so we are really going to work on our goal scoring this week as well and just look forward to playing an outstanding team on Sunday,” Starr said.
Although the Terriers have their toughest challenge of the 2017 campaign in front of them, Starr said she wants to take the rest of the week to focus on her own team and to prepare them as much as possible for the game.
“I really just want to focus on ourselves and get better each day.” Starr said, “When you are playing the number one team in the country, it’s a great opportunity and it’s a fun opportunity, so we will look to get better everyday, shore up the problems we were having defensively and try to really improve.”
