The No. 10 Boston University women’s lacrosse team opened its 2009 season with a dominant 15-5 victory over non-conference foe the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Wednesday afternoon.
The Minutewomen held an early 1-0 lead, but once the Terriers went ahead midway through the first half, they never looked back.
Playing in front of their home crowd at Nickerson Field, the Terriers put on a prolific offensive show led by junior Traci Landy’s four goals. After a slow start, sophomore midfielder Rachel Collins got the Terriers on the board with a goal 11 minutes into the first half.’
Less than two minutes later, freshman Hannah Frey scored her first goal in her first collegiate game to put the Terriers ahead, 2-1. BU started rolling from there with goals from senior captain Sarah Dalton, Landy and junior McKinley Curro, who used a beautiful spin move to set up her shot, giving the Terriers a 5-1 lead.
Just as the game seemed to be slipping away for UMass, senior Meghan Reddy flicked the ball past BU junior goalkeeper Rachel Klein to bring the score to 5-2. Shortly after, sophomore midfielder Jackie Lyons scored her second goal to pull the Minutewomen within two at the end of the first half.
Coming into the game, BU coach Liz Robertshaw planned to use the fast break to score, but the Terriers ‘didn’t do a great job of that in the first half,’ Robertshaw said.
‘But we talked about it during halftime, and did better in the second half.’
The Terriers came out firing in the second stanza, exploding for 10 goals. Junior attacker Xan Weitzel netted two goals of her own within the first five minutes to put the Terriers up, 7-3.
Senior attacker Holly Drown gave UMass one last chance to make the game competitive with a goal as the sun set over Nickerson, bringing the score to 7-4. At this point, UMass showed remarkable efficiency, scoring four goals on only five shot attempts, but the lack of shot attempts is a testament to the Terriers’ superb defensive play.
‘We played how I thought we would,’ Robertshaw said. ‘The entire defense really played great.’
While the defense held up their part of the bargain, the Terriers’ offense continued to pepper the net against freshman goalkeeper Katie Florence. Less than 20 seconds after UMass scored its fourth goal, BU returned the favor with a goal by Landy on an assist from Weitzel. Nine seconds later, Weitzel added a third goal of her own to extend the lead to 9-4 at the 23-minute mark.
The Terriers added six more goals the rest of the way, including one by freshman Annie Stookesberry, who scored five seconds after coming off the bench in her collegiate debut. Dalton, Frey and Collins each notched their second goals of the game, and Landy added her third and fourth scores.
Weitzel had a career-high six points (3 goals, 3 assists), and earned praise from Robertshaw as the player of the game.
‘But everyone really stepped up,’ Robertshaw said. ‘Having all these scorers makes us dangerous. The whole team was motivated, and our sideline was great at staying involved.’
The Terriers travel to Williamsburg, Va. next to face the College of William & Mary on Saturday.
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