Women’s Lacrosse Preview: BU vs. Brown University

Terriers Look To Win Second Consecutive Home Opener

By Seth Orensky

The #10/11 Boston University Women’s Lacrosse team hosts the Brown University Bears in the Terriers home opener Wednesday at 4pm at Nickerson Field. Boston U opened their 2010 campaign with a 10-8 victory last Wednesday against the University of Massachusetts. Wednesday’s game will be the Terriers first game at home since they won the America East Championship last May against the University of New Hampshire.

Brown and Boston U have played four times since 2002 with the Terriers holding a three to one edge. The Bears will look to get some revenge after the Terriers blew them out 16-4 the last time the two teams met in March of 2008. In that game, BU jumped out to a 10-3 lead at half time and never looked back cruising to a big road victory.

In the Terriers season opener against UMASS, Senior attacker Traci Landy (’10) scored four goals and freshman attacker Danielle Etrasco (’13) added 3 more as BU held on for a 10-8 victory. Etrasco was named America East Rookie of the Week for her performance as she added an assist to go along with her trio of goals. Senior goalie Rachel Klein (’10) earned America East Defensive Player of the Week as she made eight saves on 16 shots in stopping the Minutemen from making a late rally.

Although the Terriers came out strong offensively in their first game, the team is still searching for an offensive identity. Without last year’s leading scorer Sarah Dalton ('09), the all-time leading scorer in BU history, the team does not have a clear number one scorer. Coach Elizabeth Robertshaw says she is confident that the team will find a way to score because of their bevy of experienced players at the attacker position. The possible solutions include last year’s second leading scorer senior McKinley Curro ('10) (71 points, 40 goals), Landy (63 points, 56 goals) the team’s second leading goal scorer last year and Etrasco who was a Lacrosse All-American last year at Massapequa High School in New York.

On the other side, Brown returns two of its top three scorers from a team that finished 7-8 last season. The Bears started off the season with a bang fighting through snowy conditions to take down Sacred Heart University 14-6. Brown outshot Sacred Heart 32-13 in the contest as the Bears scored the first two goals of the game and never looked back.

Sophomore attackers Katelyn Caro (’12) and Kaela McGilloway (’12) will be relied upon to improve upon their stellar freshmen campaigns when they tied for the team lead in points with 29. Another second year player, goalie Isabel Harvey (’12) will be an integral part of the team this season as she won the starting goalie competition. Harvey in the team’s first game made four stops to help the Bears win easily.

To listen to the game go to http://wtbusports.com/ and click on the alternate stream. If you can’t listen along or even if you can and want to get more information, check out my liveblog as I’ll be breaking down all the action.