The No. 12 Boston University women’s lacrosse team faces Brown University today at 4 p.m. at Nickerson Field in what should be a high-scoring affair.
The Bears are coming off a strong season-opening victory Saturday, when they defeated Sacred Heart University, 14-6. Brown outshot the Pioneers 32-13&-which could pose a threat to the Terrier defense.
“They’re a good team that got a good first win this weekend . . . They shoot really well, which will be a good test for our defensive unit,” said BU coach Liz Robertshaw.
Brown’s leading scorer against Sacred Heart was junior Paris Waterman, who scored on three out of her four shots on goal against the Pioneers Saturday.
“[Waterman] is a fast, aggressive shooter who transitions the ball well, who is able to put points on the board and is also an aggressive defender,” Robertshaw said.
However, BU’s defensive unit looks up to the task, led by senior captain and goalkeeper Rachel Klein, who has been in the net since 2007. Klein was named the America East Defensive Player of the Week after her eight-save effort against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the season opener.
“Defensively, we want to keep the team intensity, but we need to limit the fouls. We were a little too aggressive, and we put UMass on the line in free-position shots too often, in my opinion,” Robertshaw said. “We want to stay aggressive against Brown, but we want to make sure that we are doing it legally and we don’t put them in too many free-shot opportunities.”
The Terriers had 33 fouls to the Bears’ 20, in each teams’ last time out.
The Terriers offensive unit started the season well versus UMass, led by several reliable veterans and an up-and-coming rookie.
Senior captain Traci Landi led BU in scoring (4 g) and shots on goal (6) against UMass, which gave the Terriers the edge they needed to win. Senior co-captain McKinley Curro had two goals and three shots on goal last week.
But the big surprise on the Terrier roster was freshman attacker Danielle Etrasco, who finished right behind Landi in goals (3) and shots on goal (4). The Massapequa, N.Y. native has made an impressive start and should be a force to be reckoned with against Brown, Robertshaw said.
“I am definitely looking for [Etrasco] to continue on her performance from last week, and I think she does too,” Robertshaw said. “She has fun out there, I think that she is ready to go and she looked good in practice.”
Despite the Terriers’ success last week, improvements still need to be made in their shooting game in order to be successful tonight. BU attempted 24 shots against UMass last week and scored only 10 &- the Terriers are going to need better accuracy against the high-scoring Bears attack in order to walk away with a win.
“We’ve been improving on our shooting and the attacking looks we’ve been getting on cage, which are two things that we have tried to look at and work on,” Robertshaw said. “We have been trying to work on our comfort when under pressure on the attacking end.
“I am hoping that some of the work we did this week on out-attacking, our shooting and the looks we’ve been getting on cage works against Brown.”
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