The No. 19 Boston University field hockey team had a big weekend at home, facing cross-town rivals No. 10 Boston College Friday night and Providence College Sunday afternoon.
The Terriers (4-2) came into Friday’s matchup hot off a two-game sweep the previous weekend against the University of Maine and Hofstra University. On a quest to get its third straight win, BU fell just short of victory against BC (4-2) in overtime, 2-1.
“We competed hard, we played well,” said BU coach Sally Starr. “It was a great hockey game. [BC] is an outstanding team and I think we played with them well. We had opportunities to score. They’re an outstanding attacking team and we defended them exceptionally well.”
The Terriers came out strong in the first half, rallying their offensive play. Just 11 minutes into the game, it was BU who struck first on a mid-air shot by junior forward Madeline McClain after junior back Bea Baumberger Altirriba’s high pass.
However, the Eagles would not stay down for long, as just under 10 minutes after the Terriers scored, they would make their own mark on the scoreboard. Midfielder Emily McCoy found the back of the net on a penalty corner insert from freshman Frederique Haverhals.
“We mixed things up a little bit which was good for us,” Starr said. “We mixed up our press a little bit in the second half and they struggled with that. We carried in some opportunities off of that which would have been great if we could have scored.”
After a scoreless second half, the two teams headed into sudden death overtime. Three minutes into the overtime period, BC freshman Ymke Rose Gote passed the ball to McCoy in the circle, who stood alone in front of the BU net and tapped the ball in, giving the Eagles their fourth victory of the season.
“Overall, I’m really pleased,” Starr said. “You hate to lose, particularly to BC because it’s a sweet win if you can get it, but I was really pleased with how we competed tonight and the progress that we showed from this past weekend.”
Sunday proved to be a different story for the Terriers against Providence, as they emerged with an impressive victory and junior goalkeeper Cammy Jensen’s first career shutout.
“We made some changes after our Friday night game against BC,” Starr said. “We tried some different people in some different spots and some different alignments and with not being able to practice it yesterday, I was pleased with the hockey that we played today.”
On BU’s first penalty corner of the game, senior midfielder/forward Sofi Laurito tipped the ball straight into the net after a pass from the top of the circle by Altirriba. The goal put the Terriers up 1-0 in the 17th minute.
“Our penalty corner execution was outstanding today,” Starr said after the Providence contest. “We made some good calls on it and made some good traps. It’s something that we practice every week, we practice a lot, and the girls executed very well today.”
It was the Terriers who struck once more in the first half, on another penalty corner opportunity. Senior backer Rachel Coll scored her first goal of the season on a tip into the net after Altirriba’s initial shot from the edge of the circle.
BU converted for the final time in the second half, once again executing its penalty corner strategy. Laurito scored her second goal of the game on a deflection off Altirriba’s third assist of the match.
Despite numerous efforts from the Friars, BU successfully held off all scoring attempts throughout the game, thanks to its aggressive defense.
“There’s things that we learned from this weekend that we know that we do very, very well, such as pressing,” Starr said. “There [are] things we need to improve upon, such as after we win the ball in the press is [to] really create quality goal-scoring opportunities in the circle.
“We’ve got a good practice week coming up, and only a single game next week on a Saturday,” she added, “so I’m really looking forward to a productive week and an exciting game against a very good conference team.”
Ranya currently covers field hockey and women’s hockey for the Daily Free Press. As a Biology major at BU, she spends much of her time buried in her Chemistry textbook with the occasional trip to the piano practice room to rehearse her favorite piece, Debussy’s "Claire de Lune." She is an avid ice hockey fan and a proud supporter of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
