The Boston University field hockey team won both of its contests over the weekend at New Balance Field and remains undefeated in its season so far, thanks in large part to its senior leadership and success on penalty corners.
The Terriers (6-0) defeated the No. 20 University of Maine 2-1 on Friday, and earned a 5-0 victory on Sunday over the University of California, Davis.
Both games showed why the Terriers are off to their first 6-0 start in program history. The Terriers’ offense has been firing on all cylinders through the first six games, thanks to their eight-person senior class, and this weekend’s contests were no different.
In Friday’s game against the Black Bears (5-1), the Terriers outshot their opponent 14 to eight. Against the Aggies (1-5), BU dominated the shots category, taking a staggering 31 compared to UC Davis’ two.
BU also had a substantial advantage over its opponents with penalty corners. Against Maine, the Terriers had eight penalty corners to the Black Bears’ four. In their triumph over the Aggies, BU took 10 corners, while the Aggies only mustered one.
BU head coach Sally Starr admitted that Friday’s contest was not easy, as Maine is quite the formidable opponent, but she was proud of her team’s effort in securing the victory.
“It was a little bit of grind,” Starr said. “They battled hard and played good hockey. It was outstanding.”
Starr acknowledged how well her team was able to capitalize offensively on Maine’s blunders, specifically the first goal of the game.
Following a yellow card against skilled defender Adriana Martineau, senior midfielder Hester Van der Laan took advantage of the penalty, putting the Terriers up 1-0.
“For Hester to put in that goal, it was a gorgeous individual effort,” Starr said.
The Amsterdam native has been very impressive this season, and is coming off her second straight Patriot League All-First Team selection. The Terriers will rely heavily on her to set an example throughout the season. Another player who stepped up for the Terriers over the weekend was junior forward Grace Boston, who scored her first goal of the season on Sunday.
Against UC Davis, the offense got on a roll early on and never looked back. For the Terriers, the ability to score five goals against a team who jammed the box was quite impressive.
“Similar to the Maine game, there wasn’t a lot of a space to make plays,” Starr said. “They really packed it in the circle a whole lot.”
Though Starr was pleased by the amount of penalty corners her team received over the weekend, only two of the 18 corners were converted for goals.
“I was really pleased in the second half with the amount of penalty corners we were able to draw,” Starr said. “When you play [UC Davis] where space is really condensed you really have to go for those set pieces. Now we have to just be better at converting those set pieces.”
The Terriers may be 6-0 and off to the best start in program history, but that does not mean the team has no holes. That being said, the shot differential and amount of penalty corners that the Terriers took this weekend are yet another indicator of why this team sits atop the Patriot League standings.
“I think we attacked really well,” Starr said. “Our team came out and played an honorable hockey games this weekend.”
