Out to do something that had never been done before, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team hit a road bump this weekend in Boston. In search of the program’s first ever win over the Terriers, Binghamton (2-9, 1-3 AE) allowed the most goals since its 2009 season on Saturday as Boston University (5-6, 2-2 AE) cruised to a 21-12 home victory.
Despite their defensive struggles, the Bearcats matched their season high in goals scored, connecting on 12 shots for the second straight game. Senior midfielders Katherine Hunsberger and Kristen Stone led Binghamton with three goals apiece.
“I thought we were able to execute our game plan [on offense] and get some good looks in the cage when we did have the possession of the ball,” Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize on draw controls as much as we would’ve liked to get the ball into our offensive end a little more, especially in the first 15, 20 minutes of the game.”
The Binghamton defense struggled with Boston’s potent offense, which ranks third in the conference with 11.82 goals per game.
Senior attack and All-American Danielle Etrasco and senior midfield Kristen Mogavero led the way for the Terriers with six goals apiece. Etrasco, who was named America East Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, also recorded a team-high four caused turnovers, a team-high five draw controls and a pair of assists to finish with a game-best eight points.
But it was the America East Rookie of the Week, Boston midfield Sofia Robins, who opened scoring in Saturday’s match 30 seconds into play. A goal from Stone minutes later would pull Binghamton even, but Boston would score the next three to take a 4-1 lead with 17:43 on the clock.
After Binghamton pulled back to within one on a free position shot by senior midfield Casey Bulman, the Terriers used a 7-4 run over the half’s final 10 minutes to head into halftime with a 12-8 lead.
The Bearcats scored two of the first three goals of the second half to trim their deficit to three. But the Terriers responded with a 5-1 run that gave them an 18-10 advantage with just under 22 minutes remaining. Binghamton managed just two more goals through the game’s remaining minutes as the Terriers pulled away with their second conference victory.
The loss was the third straight for the Bearcats, who last suffered a 13-12 heartbreaker against New Hampshire on April 6.
With two conference games remaining on Binghamton’s schedule, the Bearcats currently sit in a three-way tie for fourth place in the America East. Stony Brook, perfect in conference play thus far, holds sole possession of first place, while defending conference champion Albany sits in second with a 3-1 record. Following their win on Saturday, the Terriers are now tied with UMBC for third, while Vermont and New Hampshire join Binghamton in the basement at 1-3.
With Boston set to leave the conference next year and banned from the 2013 postseason, the Bearcats are still in postion to control their own playoff destiny if they win this weekend, making their final regular season home game against Albany this weekend all the more crucial.
“[Saturday’s game against Albany is] gonna be [the team’s] senior day, so it’s obviously one that we wanna go out there and take advantage of the home turf that we’ll be playing on,” Allen said. “Albany has always been a bigger rival of ours and we’ll look to … put ourselves into a better position conference playoff-wise.”
Action is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex.