With this Friday’s showdown against No. 4 Loyola College looming large on the horizon, the 11th-ranked Boston University lacrosse team defeated Monmouth University 12-8 last Thursday behind a career day from junior Alyssa Trudel.
Trudel tallied a total of six points with four goals and two assists, passing Ericka Hergenroeder to move into sixth place on BU’s all-time scoring list with 146 points.
The Terriers (2-0) trail Vanderbilt University by one point for a top-10 position in the most recent coaches’ poll and show signs of being in the nation’s top tier of teams, according to BU coach Liza Shoemaker.
“I’m very pleased with the way we’ve played in practice, but we need to be able to go for 60 minutes in a game,” she said. “We need to work on consistency.”
As in their first game – a 12-9 win over the University of Massachusetts at Amherst – the Terriers put the opposition away early in the second half only to leave the door open for a late surge.
Leading 5-3 at halftime on Thursday, the Terriers distanced themselves from the Hawks (0-1) with six unanswered goals to start the second half, pushing their lead to 11-3. BU failed to score in the final 13 minutes of play, however, as Monmouth closed the gap to 12-8 before falling short in the comeback attempt.
The Terriers, who finished third in the nation last season in goals per game at 12.74, are still as potent offensively, but need to find the balance that led to last year’s success, Shoemaker said.
“Last year, this team held the NCAA record for scoring margin, so it’s not just our offense that generates wins,” she said. “We win with balance on offense and defense.”
So far this year, BU has nearly matched last year’s goals per game average, scoring 12 goals in each of its first two victories. But the box scores for both victories look eerily similar, as the Terriers led the Minutewomen 4-2 at halftime before scoring five of the next six goals to stretch the lead to 9-3. A late rally by Massachusetts cut the BU lead to a precarious 10-9 score, but as they would later do against Monmouth, the Terriers pulled away at the end after failing to shut the door on their opponents.
Shoemaker said her squad has played well enough to win so far this season but still has room for improvement on both sides of the ball as it prepares for Friday’s contest.
“In the first two games, I don’t think we did either [offense or defense] well,” she said. “We should have scored more goals and we shouldn’t have let them score so many.”
Offensively, BU has found an impressive level of balance, with four players tied for the team lead in goals with five each. Freshman attacker Angie Martin (six assists) is tied for second on the team in overall points despite not scoring a single goal. She tallied five helpers against Massachusetts.
This year’s team has also benefited from some impressive contributions from players whose success might not show up in the box score on a team featuring four returning All-Americans.
“We’ve had a great performance from [junior] Hannah Cross in the midfield, and [sophomore] Kaitlyn Cuneo has been superb for us on defense,” Shoemaker said.
And with only four days left until the first real test of the young season for BU, Shoemaker promised to have her team ready for a duel that could catapult BU to the highest level of national recognition that it has ever known.
“This team will be ready for [Loyola],” said Shoemaker. “We have a week to prepare and we will be ready.”