The No. 21 University of Colorado lacrosse team was unable to keep pace with Boston College on Sunday afternoon, falling 21-9 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Newton Campus Field.
Boston College is the No. 2 seeded team in the tournament but is the top-ranked team in all three national polls. The Eagles improved to 20-1 on the season, while the Buffs finish their campaign with an 11-8 record.
“It was a tough game and match-up for us,” head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. “I thought we did a good job in our settled situations of executing the game plan. As we saw Friday night, it’s tough to play when you don’t have possession of the ball. We got beat on draw controls a lot in that first half and we had trouble breaking out the ball. And our inability to give ourselves more possessions really hurt us. And against a good team that can execute, if you give them too many chances, that can really hurt you.”
WHAT HAPPENED: The Eagles got on the board first, scoring in the first two minutes, but the Buffs were able to even it up three minutes later as Charlie Rudy tallied her first of five markers in the game.
Rudy put Colorado in the lead less than three minutes later at 22:38 with her second goal of the game, which came off a BC turnover. Boston College responded with two goals to regain the lead before the first 10 minutes of the game were over, but Samantha Nemirov tied it back up with her first of the game at 18:51.
After Nemirov’s goal, the momentum swung to the Eagles as they rattled off 11 straight goals in the next 13 minutes (14-3). Rudy finally but an end to BC’s scoring streak with a goal with 2:54 left in the half. Neither team would score again before the clock expired in the half.
The Buffs struck first in the second half with Sadie Grozier finding the back of the net at 29:14. The Eagles recorded the next three before Rudy tallied her fourth goal of the game to cut the score to 17-6. CU was unable to keep the momentum as the Eagles scored their 18th goal of the contest with 18:41 left to play and added another two to take a 20-6 advantage.
Colorado was able to score back-to-back markers at 12:10 and 9:45 with goals from Nemirov and Rudy, bringing the score to 20-8.
Each team would score once more. BC tallied its 21st of the game at 8:31 and with one second remaining in the game, Miranda Stinson scored her only goal of the game.
KEY STATISTICS: The Eagles controlled the draw, winning 23 of 31. They also had the edge in shots (31-22), saves (9-7) and converted on 6-of-7 free-position attempts, compared to CU’s 1-of-4. CU did lead in ground balls, 16-14.
NOTABLE:
- Samantha Nemirov extended her school record point scoring-streak to 39 games
- This is the fourth time Charlie Rudy has had three goals in a single game
- This is the second straight season the Buffs have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. They fell to Florida in the second round last season
- This was the second meeting between the two teams. BC leads the series 2-0
- The Buffs finish the season 6-1 on the road
- Colorado is now 2-3 in NCAA Tournament games
TEAM LEADERS:
| Colorado | |
| Points: 9 | |
| Goals: 9 | |
| Assists: 0 | |
| Draw Controls: 8 | |
| Ground Balls: 16 | |
| Saves: 7 | |
| Boston College | |
| Points: 30 | |
| Goals: 21 | |
| Assists: 9 | |
| Draw Controls: 23 | |
| Ground Balls: 14 | |
| Saves: 9 |
QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Ann Elliott Whidden
General Statement
It was a tough game and match-up for us. I thought we did a good job in our settled situations of executing the game plan. As we saw Friday night, it’s tough to play when you don’t have possession of the ball. We got beat on draw controls a lot in that first half and we had trouble breaking out the ball. And our inability to give ourselves more possessions really hurt us. And against a good team that can execute, if you give them too many chances, that can really hurt you.
Thoughts on the offense
I’m really proud of our offense overall. We had an idea that is would be difficult for our top attackers to get the ball, being face-guarded, and we needed other people to step up and I thought everyone did a really good job of being controlled in their role of playing controlled and stepping up and making plays. I’m proud of Charlie for stepping up and making opportunities. In general our attack did a great job; we just didn’t have the ball enough.
Thoughts on advancing to the NCAA Second Round for the second straight year
With the season we had and the ups and downs, the way we have played in April and in the beginning of May, I’m really proud of this group. They are resilient. We had great leadership from our senior class, in terms of continuing to push this team to believe and to get to that next level. I think we really believed in ourselves today and we saw that at parts. We fell short in terms of possession and creating opportunities for ourselves. But I think this experience of going up against a team like BC is really going to help us as we look forward to next season and the growth of our young players. I’m really excited about the experience we got today. I know we have a lot of potential. For our senior class, this isn’t an ideal way to end; I think they wanted to keep playing, but I’m really proud of what they have down for this program.
