After just for games, only seven undefeated teams remain in all of Division I Field Hockey. Friday\u2019s 4 p.m. tilt at New Balance Field will feature two of them.<\/p>\n
No. 13 Boston University (4-0) will host no. 20 University of Maine (4-0), who entered the season unranked but coasted to a 24-6 goal differential in their opening contests.<\/p>\n
Despite BU\u2019s 29-6 all time series lead over Maine, they will not be taken lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a good game, they are always well coached,\u201d said BU head coach Sally Starr. \u201cMaine kids play hard. I love recruiting kids from Maine, having them on my roster. They are a team that takes their coach\u2019s personality, and they work hard and play fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Maine\u2019s roster does include several players from within the state, foreigners outnumber US natives on the roster. As is often the case in collegiate field hockey, Maine\u2019s coach has helped them land plenty of foreign talent. Josette Babineau, in her tenth season at the helm, has coached extensively in the Canadian U-18 and U-21 set ups. Nine Canadians appear on the U-Maine roster, and just one of them comes from outside British Columbia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are always a dangerous attacking team but more so this year, we\u2019ve got to defend with outstanding integrity to be competitive tomorrow,\u201d said Starr.<\/p>\n
That defending will be done for the most part by the Terriers\u2019 all new backline, which features a trio of players making their first starts of their careers on the backline. Sophomores Maika Akroyd, Ally Hammel and junior Jordyn Beesmer are amongst the team leaders in minutes played, and their constant presence on the field is in stark contrast to the minutes BU\u2019s forwards have seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strikers are being subbed every six to eight minutes, the mids about seven to ten. For the backs, particularly with the injury to Bea, we are lean in that position, Renzi could play in that back line if we needed to. They\u2019re young, but I\u2019m very pleased with how they are doing. Gaining experience every game, and they are the only three that are staying on the field,\u201d said Starr.<\/p>\n
The back line average 282 minutes between them, having missed a combined twelve minutes of the 840 available, contrasted with BU points leader Amanda Cassera\u2019s 119 minutes played. Much of this is down to the differences of positional play with the additional running required of the forward line, but such a drastic difference is no less remarkable. With the defense looking increasingly solid and Cassera bagging a goal per game, it certainly appears to be yet another stroke of genius from BU\u2019s veteran coaching staff.<\/p>\n
The midfield has also impressed, though the success thus far has originated from unexpected sources. Preseason offensive player of the year Hester van der Laan has been relatively quiet with just a point on one assist so far, but her deeper-lying teammates have compensated, especially sophomore Allie Doggett, who has registered two assists off the bench this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAllie can be really dangerous on the ball. She\u2019s very fast, very skilled. She\u2019s starting to understand that she\u2019s got the green light to go, so she\u2019s really creating a lot of goal opportunities. She\u2019s taking the ball into the circle with a lot of pace, a lot of danger. She\u2019s an outstanding player, a high school All-American, and she can do a lot of great things for us,\u201d said Starr, heaping praise on the sophomore from Watertown.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it was her speed and dribbling ability on display in Sunday\u2019s win over Miami University (OH.). Credited with the assist for Cassera\u2019s second after an epic run toeing the touchline, she also sparked the move up field that created BU\u2019s first in the 2-1 win. Still without a goal to her name at the collegiate level and without a start this season, it seems to be only a matter of time before she establishes herself as a pillar in BU\u2019s midfield after seeing time at the outside back position in last year\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Cammy Jensen has continued her strong start to the season, and despite a relatively low workload managed a few highlight-reel saves at New Balance last weekend. Maintaining her form will be crucial against a Maine side that has hung four or more goals on its\u2019 opponents in each game so far.<\/p>\n
As BU seeks to continue its\u2019 climb up the coaches poll this weekend, be warned that Friday\u2019s 4 p.m. will likely be played in the extreme heat. The forecast reads 90 degrees, so don\u2019t forget your water bottle to this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After just for games, only seven undefeated teams remain in all of Division I Field Hockey. Friday\u2019s 4 p.m. tilt at New Balance Field will feature two of them. No. 13 Boston University (4-0) will host no. 20 University of Maine (4-0), who entered the season unranked but coasted to a 24-6 goal differential in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17193,"featured_media":1224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1049,1039],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}