Does the Boston University women’s lacrosse team deserve its No. 6 national ranking?
After a tough 9-8 triple-overtime loss March 21 to underdog and Northeast region rival Dartmouth College, then No. 12, some may have been asking the Terriers that question.
But if the loss to Dartmouth stirred rumors about where BU should be ranked, it only stirred up emotion in the Terriers, who made a definitive statement about the strength of their program with two dominant wins this weekend.
The Terriers rolled to two more wins to raise their record to 5-2, burying Vanderbilt University, 15-7, at Harvard University Sunday after cruising to a 12-1 win against America East foe Drexel University Friday at Boston College.
After trudging through three overtimes against Dartmouth only to lose, BU seemed to be out to assure its two games this weekend would be over in regulation. Sunday, the Terriers never trailed and led 8-2 at halftime en route to the win. What’s more, BU outshot Vanderbilt, 41-14, and committed only nine fouls to the Commodores’ 21.
That effort paled in comparison to Friday’s whitewashing of Drexel, however, as the Terriers limited the Dragons to just seven shots all game. BU extended its 5-0 halftime lead to 10-0 with 13:07 left in the second half and junior Brooke Barrett and freshman Lauren Beatty weren’t exactly busy between the pipes, combining to make only six saves on the day.
“We played much better [than we did in the loss to Dartmouth],” said freshman attacker Polly Purcell. “We were more connected on offense, and we just took what happened against Dartmouth and channeled it into something positive. It’s hard to lose any game in overtime, but we lost to Dartmouth last year also. It’s good to know that we can stay focused.”
Realigned IWLCA Division I national rankings will be posted today. But after an early season schedule pitted BU against three nationally ranked teams in its first seven games — the University of North Carolina, James Madison University and Dartmouth — the Terriers are unlikely to slip a great deal in the rankings, if at all.
And even if they do, BU’s confidence level hasn’t been affected, according to junior attacker Katie Nordhoff.
“We played strongly and with confidence [this weekend],” Nordhoff said. “We wanted to go out and play with passion and show that the Dartmouth loss didn’t affect us. Our confidence is pretty high but we know it’s a long season. We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”
FAMILIAR FACES
The Terriers featured nine different multiple goal scorers in their first five games, and that balanced scoring attack didn’t relent this weekend against Vanderbilt and Drexel.
Ten different players tallied for BU in its two games, and seven different players found the back of the net on both Friday and Sunday.
Senior midfielder Chrissy Lombard, a two-time America East Player of the Year, continued her offensive torrent, scoring five times and assisting once to bring her point total to 22 — BU’s highest so far this season.
Senior midfielder Kyle Rutkowski scored four times, sophomore attacker Caroline Kelleher and junior midfielder Kristin Abruzzese tallied three times each, senior attacker Rachel Lieber added two and four Terriers scored once.
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