A disastrous start did not deter the Boston University field hockey team from gaining their third straight victory Saturday afternoon. In an important conference game against the University of New Hampshire, the Terriers put on a strong defensive performance en route to a 2-1 victory at Jack Barry field.
Tabbed to finish first in the America East coaches preseason poll, the Wildcats have mustered a disappointing 1-2 record against conference rivals (9-6 overall). The Terriers, meanwhile, improve to 3-0 in the conference and 7-8 on the season.
A dangerous UNH attack caught the Terrier midfield sleeping in the opening moments of the game. UNH’s prolific goal-scorer Meg Shea engineered a turnover in the neutral zone before passing off to Hayley Rausch for the score.
‘We know [UNH senior Meg Shea] is great. I think she’s had a point in every game so far, including this one,’ BU coach Sally Starr said. ‘You love to have her on your team and hate to play against her. She’s very aggressive and makes you pay for your mistakes, like on that steal and assist early. She has great anticipation.’
After the opening mistake, Terrier defenders held UNH to just three shots the rest of the way. Shea, whose 18 goals had her tied for fourth in the nation entering the game, was kept off the goal-scoring column for just the second time in the year.
‘Haley Robinson played well on defense ‘-‘- the whole defense played well,’ Starr said. ‘UNH is an excellent attacking team.’
Solid goaltending by UNH’s Katherine Nagengast kept BU off the score sheet in the first half. All of the Terriers’ six shots in the period were on goal but none found the net.
Sixteen minutes into the second half, BU got a spark from two unexpected sources. Redshirt freshman Rachael White collected her first collegiate assist by muscling the ball out of a crowd and finding sophomore Kali Cardoza, who put in her first goal of the season.
Cardoza became the 10th different Terrier to score a goal this year.
The Terriers continued pushing, keeping the ball in the offensive zone and earning five penalty corners in the second half. Their final one finally resulted in a much-deserved lead.
Ten minutes from the end of regulation time, freshman Jacinda McLeod tracked a ball that had originally left the shooting circle and launched a shot on net. Freshman Nicole van Oosterom, the reigning America East Rookie of the Week, was on the spot to put the resulting rebound in.
The comeback victory marked BU’s third straight win. BU held a 12-4 shot advantage and an 8-5 penalty corner edge over UNH in the game. Junior Amanda Smith was only called on to make two saves for her seventh victory of the season.
‘It’s a huge, huge win for us,’ Starr said. ‘I think September prepared us well for today. UNH is an outstanding team, but we kept plugging away and working hard.’
After a frustrating start to the season against difficult opponents, the Terriers look poised to make some noise in the postseason. Their excellent intra-conference record assures them of a place in the America East playoffs.
‘I’ll say it again, it’s a huge win,’ Starr said. ‘It assures us a spot in the conference tournament early, unlike last year when we had to win a tough game at [the University of] Vermont on the last weekend. It’s nice to know we’re in early in October.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
