In a weekend that could have been the most grueling stretch of the 2010 season for the No. 11 Boston University field hockey team, the Terriers came away with a 6-0 conference win against the University of Vermont and a 1-0 road loss to No. 13 Duke University.
On Friday afternoon, the Terriers (7-4, 1-0 America East) put the Catamounts (5-7, 0-1) away early by scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes and dominating the game on both sides of ball. BU took 30 shots, including 19 on goal, while allowing just one.
“We attacked really well, and we defended really well,” said BU coach Sally Starr. “It’s good to be scoring goals, and it’s good to have combinations of people scoring as well. We just need to find a way to continue that into the rest of the season.”
Five different players scored BU’s six goals, but Starr was especially pleased with the play of sophomore midfielder/forward Nicole van Oosterom, who scored twice.
“When she makes it into the circle like that we get excited on the sidelines because she makes things happen,” Starr said. “She scored two goals that were outstanding, outstanding goals.”
On the other side of the field, senior goalkeeper Amanda Smith shut out the Catamounts in the first half and blocked Vermont’s only shot, while sophomore goalkeeper Julie Collins played 35 minutes of shutout hockey in the second half.
“It’s nice to have the confidence to be able to play two goalies,” Starr said. “It was an excellent defensive game for us. We were able to pretty much keep them out of our defensive circle, which is also really, really good.”
In addition to switching goalies, the large lead also allowed Starr to get other players game time.
The win was a strong start to the conference portion of the Terriers’ schedule, which has four more games on it this month, but Starr said the rest of the team’s conference opponents will likely be tougher.
“Vermont is a good team, but they’re not the strength of the conference,” Starr said. “If you look at how [the University at Albany] is doing, how [the University of New Hampshire] is doing, there’s some excellent competition in the conference.”
After the victory, the team flew to North Carolina, where it took on the Blue Devils (6-6) Sunday afternoon in an important non-conference road game. The team held even with Duke until 10 minutes into the second half, when Duke freshman Caashia Karringten scored the only goal of 1-0 victory over the Terriers.
Starr said the game was certainly “a measure of how good this team is, how good this program is.”
The Terriers were plagued by problems similar to the ones that led to the team’s loss to Old Dominion University on Sept. 26. The Terriers outshot the Blue Devils 9-6, and accrued six penalty corners to Duke’s two, but could not convert on any of their offensive opportunities.
The team has not defeated the Blue Devils since 1990 and has fared especially badly when playing them away from home.
“Their field has been a house of horrors for us,” Starr said. “Anytime we’ve gone down there we’ve been absolutely embarrassed.”
This time, though, was different as BU was competitive for all 70 minutes.
“We competed and we competed successfully. We were not embarrassed at all,” Starr said.
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