It was the third year in a row the America East conference tournament was held at Boston University’s home turf of Jack Barry Field.
And for the second straight year, the Terriers walked off the field champions.
It was the sixth championship for the Terriers in America East conference history and for the second straight year they dismantled the University of Maine. This season, the win awards them an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament next weekend.
The Terriers could get used to sitting atop the conference. With their back-to-back championships in tow, BU could become the new American East power.
“I really feel that we have a great program here and we are one of the top teams in the country and in order to do that we need to be dominant in America East and take care of winning the conference championship,” said BU coach Sally Starr.
“I am really happy that we did it in such an emphatic fashion, winning 4-1 [yesterday], I didn’t want it to be a 1-0 game I wanted it to have an exclamation mark after it,” she added.
Similar to last season’s championship game, the Terriers needed to get by the Black Bears to take home the conference title. Last season, they routed Maine by a score of 3-1 and yesterday they bested their own score by tallying four goals in the effort.
The win was certainly sweet for a team that had its ups and downs throughout the season and finished off the season reeling off six wins in a row, finishing the season on the top of the America East pile and walking away with that trophy.
But most of all, it was sweet for the team’s three fifth-year seniors-the original red-shirt freshmen who came back for another year in search of glory.
“I’m really happy for our three fifth-year seniors,” Starr said. “They came back for this. They came back for one more shot at an NCAA Tournament, so I’m really happy that they got that-I wanted this for them in the worst way.”
It just wouldn’t have seemed fitting for those seniors to walk off Jack Barry Field-their home field-as losers. After such illustrious careers, there was only one way for them to leave, as champions.
“It’s so easy for a team, at the beginning of the season or preseason to say that they’re going to be amazing but then to actually come out and do it, it really proves the heart that’s the core of this team and always has been,” said goalie and co-captain Erin Prediger. “My fifth year, I’m thanking all my teammates who keep letting me play another game, stick around for another practice and hang out for another week.”
Prediger and her fellow seniors will get at least that as the Terriers await the selection show Tuesday night that will inform them of their next opponent. But for now they are satisfied with simply the fact that they have a “next opponent” and the season is still awaiting its punctuation.
“There’s no way you can work that hard for that long and not come out with the win,” said team co-captain Amy Seaman. “I saw the tears in the other seniors’ faces and I didn’t want that, I couldn’t have that.”
After a season that revealed consistency as the team’s biggest weakness, two wins in the biggest weekend of the year certainly showed the Terriers may have overcome that weakness. They knocked off two America East powerhouses en route to the championship and they did it in style by allowing only one goal throughout the entire tournament.
As they head into the NCAA weekend, the top dogs may become the underdogs once again but that’s just fine with them.
“You know the more you have to really fight for something than the sweeter it is,” Starr said. “This championship, for a lot of reasons, is very satisfying and really rewarding. This team had to work through a lot of things together on the field and off the field to get to this championship and I’m really proud of them.”