The Boston University women’s lacrosse team faced off at No. 1 Boston College Saturday, marking the fourth straight season in which the two teams have gone head-to-head in their season openers.
Despite strong efforts made on both the offense and defense, the Terriers (0-1) fell short to their crosstown rival Eagles (1-0) by a score of 6-20.
First-year BU head coach Lauren Morton said her team knew facing off against BC was going to be difficult.
“BC is a phenomenal team, and I think they’re very well coached, and we certainly felt prepared,” Morton said. “We knew they were going to play fast, and just overall we need to do a little bit of a better job on 50-50 balls.”
Boston College scored within the first 40 seconds, establishing a strong lead from the start. Multiple fouls and turnovers against the Terriers in the first period allowed the Eagles to gain a 5-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game.
With a dish from senior midfielder Kelly Mathews, sophomore attack Ava Barry scored the first goal for the Terriers 10 minutes in against a tight BC defense.
Fighting offensively, BC won multiple draws in the first period and was able to take advantage of the fouls against BU.
Barry struck again for the Terriers seven minutes later, but by the 18-minutes mark in the half, BC had taken control of the field to lead 11-2.
Last year, Barry was strong offensively — scoring 27 goals for the Terriers in her first year on the team.
With five minutes to go in the first, the Terriers capitalized on a foul against BC midfielder Hannah Hyatt to sneak in two goals and decrease their deficit to 4-11.
At the start of the second half, BC won the draw and got a free position attempt but could not find the back of the net to further improve their lead.
As the half progressed, the teams fought back and forth at an even pace with strong defense and multiple ground ball recoveries on both ends. Six minutes in, Eagle midfielder Cara Urbank scored her fourth goal of the season to extend her team’s lead to 12-4.
Within the first 10 minutes of the second period, assists from Eagle attack Kenzie Kent helped bring two more goals into the back of the net. Kent holds a career record of 58 total assists.
Multiple fouls between the two teams and two yellow cards on Terrier freshmen in the middle of the second period, caused some commotion on the field.
Despite these calls, Morton said her younger players deserve a lot of credit for their performances in their first collegiate games.
“It was great to see,” Morton said. “I think for number dominating, they were really unfazed, and they stepped up and did their role, which was great. They worked within the team and handled the task at hand.”
A yellow card against BC’s Urbank in the final minutes of regulation gave the Terriers an opportunity on net. With four minutes remaining, senior attack Molly Kern scored BU’s fifth goal of the match.
A good clear-attempt in the final seconds pushed the Terriers to one final shot on net. Mathews converted to earn her second goal of the game and brought her team’s total on the day to six. It was the last action of the match, and things would finish with BC on top 6-20.
The Terriers’ next test will be at home Feb. 16 against UMass Lowell at 3:30 p.m.
Morton said her team needs to put the loss at BC behind them and focus on how to improve.
“We need to work on our fundamentals and focus on … the best outcome of the game,” Morton said. “And I think that keeps us focused on us. That’s what we need to continue to do at this point in the season.”
