A comeback of their own

With most of Terrier Nation’s attention on hockey, the No. 12 Boston University lacrosse team mounted a comeback of its own to take down conference rival the University of Vermont, 12-9, on Saturday in Burlington, Vt. The Terriers fell behind early, but used a second-half surge to capture their eighth straight win and fourth conference victory, which clinched the team a spot in the America East Tournament.

‘It’s awesome,’ BU coach Liz Robertshaw said about clinching a playoff spot. ‘It’s one thing we don’t have to have in the back of our heads, thinking ‘Oh, are we going to make it?’ Now we don’t have that stress, but we need to continue working hard and get a win in our next game against Binghamton [University]. We want to be able to host the tournament for the second straight year.’

Just 12 seconds into the game, junior midfielder Sarah Buxton put the Catamounts (7-6, 2-2 AE) on top with an unassisted goal, and she added another score five minutes later to put UVM up 3-0. But BU junior attacker Traci Landy made sure Vermont did not run away with the first half by adding three goals of her own, including the equalizer at 5:21 to make the score 4-4.

Then, with 1:03 left in the half, freshman Samantha Stern sent home a pass from senior Kristen Millar to give Vermont a 5-4 lead at the break.

In the locker room, Robertshaw encouraged the Terriers (10-3, 4-0) to take more risks defensively and play more aggressive on the attack. The strategy proved effective ‘-‘- BU responded to being outshot 13-12 in the first half by gaining a 17-9 shot advantage in the second half.

‘We played better lacrosse [in the second half],’ Robertshaw said. ‘There were more opportunities to score, and we were able to find them. And on defense, we tightened it up, forced some turnovers and did a good job keeping them out of our zone.’

To come back, the Terriers relied on an old staple of their offense, senior All-American midfielder Sarah Dalton, and a new weapon, freshman midfielder Hannah Frey. After a goal by UVM freshman midfielder Allison Pfohl put Vermont up, 6-4, Dalton responded with two goals to tie the game. Combined with her first half score, Dalton pushed her season total to 60 goals, best in the nation.

Frey added the assist to Dalton’s game-tying goal at 21:47, and she added another point with an unassisted goal at 19:05 to give the Terriers an 8-6 lead. However, Vermont responded with goals by senior Sarah DeStefano and Buxton to even the game. Millar, the Catamounts leader in points, also added her third assist of the game on DeStefano’s score.

Following the third tie of the game at 13:57, BU put the game away with four consecutive goals. During the run, Frey chipped in with another goal and two more assists, giving her a career-high five points.

‘Great game for [Frey],’ Robertshaw said. ‘It’s something we’ve seen in her, the ability to score, and hopefully this will stand as a breakout. We’re going to need to look for her in this end stretch of the season when Sarah [Dalton] and McKinley [Curro] are being face-guarded.’

Junior Xan Weitzel, BU’s leader in assists, also came up big down the stretch with a goal to break the 8-8 tie. She scored again on Frey’s assist to finish the Terriers’ scoring with a 12-8 lead at 3:40. DeStefano scored once more for the Catamounts with 2:08 left in the game, but the Terriers held on for the win.