May 13, 2008

NCAA Lacrosse Championship Central

Following a 16-8 victory over No. 13 New Hampshire in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, No. 6/7 Boston University (18-2) will travel to Philadelphia to face top-ranked Penn (15-1) in the quarterfinals on Saturday (May 17) at 1 p.m. The game will be played at Drexel's Vidas Field.

The Terriers are seeded seventh in the bracket, while the Quakers are the No. 2 seed. The winner will advance to the NCAA semifinals on Friday, May 23, at Towson University and face the winner of the Maryland/Duke quarterfinal. Saturday's game will be a rematch of last year's NCAA first-round contest, which saw Penn post an 11-5 home victory.

This is the second time the Terriers have reached the quarterfinal round, as the 2005 squad won its first-round game against Colgate before falling to Virginia. BU will be looking to become the first Massachusetts team to reach the national semifinals since Harvard in 1993.

Here are other notes on this year's BU team:

* With 18 wins, Boston University matches the school mark set in 2005 and is tied with Northwestern and Maryland for the most victories in the nation this season. BU is currently enjoying a nation-best and program-record 15-game win streak.

* Head coach Liz Robertshaw, who served as the top assistant coach at Boston University for three seasons before being promoted for the 2007 season, has earned a 31-8 record since taking the helm.

* Senior co-captains Molly Collins and Lauren Morton have the most wins and best winning percentage of any Terrier class all-time. Heading into Saturday's game, Collins and Morton are 63-15 over their four seasons at Boston University, including a 22-2 record in America East play. The two are BU's only seniors, as the squad has 20 underclassmen on the roster.

* Boston University's balanced attack has the team ranked third in the nation with 427 points. Five Terriers have 45 or more points, including junior Sarah Dalton (82), Morton (63), sophomore Traci Landy (54), Collins (45) and sophomore Erica Baumgartner (45).

* Eight Boston University players earned all-conference honors, including the America East Player of the Year, which was awarded to Dalton. The junior was joined on the first team by Munroe, while Collins, Morton, Baumgartner, Landy, sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Klein and freshman Katie Nichols were all tabbed for the second team. Nichols was also named to the All-Rookie Team and Landy and Baumgartner were selected for the All-Academic Team.

* Dalton was one of 18 nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy, which is given annually to the nation's top collegiate player and is voted on by coaches across all three divisions. The junior is third in the nation with 3.83 goals per game, totaling 69 through 18 games this season, and tops amongst players whose teams are still alive in the NCAA tournament. Dalton is just one goal away from tying the Terriers' single-season mark of 70, set by Jenny Hauser in 2006.

* The Terriers have nine student-athletes from the New England area, including Collins (Winchester, Mass.) and junior Kelly Munroe (Westwood, Mass.). Munroe was named the Most Outstanding Player at this year's America East Championship.

* BU secured its fourth consecutive NCAA tournament berth and sixth all-time by taking a 15-3 decision against Sacred Heart in a play-in game on May 3. The Terriers won a record fourth straight America East title with a 9-8 overtime win over UNH on April 27. BU has won six of the last seven league titles and seven overall.

* BU went 11-0 against teams from New England this season, including victories over Massachusetts, Brown, Yale, Boston College, Vermont, Harvard, Dartmouth and Sacred Heart. The Terriers have edged New Hampshire three times, taking a 7-6 decision in the regular season and a 9-8 overtime win in the America East Championship before Sunday's NCAA first-round triumph.