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Boston University senior forward Nikki Lloyd’s first half game-winner snapped a three-game losing streak for the Terriers’ field hockey team, but the 1-0 win Sunday against the University of Maine was only a tune-up for their semifinal meeting with the Black Bears in next weekend’s America East Conference Tournament.
The last regular season game for both teams simply arranged the seeding of the four schools that qualified for the postseason. B.U. (8-11, 4-1 America East) clinched the second seed for the tournament, hosted by top seed University at Albany on Nov. 6-7. UMaine (12-6, 3-2) is the third seed, and the University of New Hampshire rounds out the field.
“Obviously you want to play every game as hard as you can, but when you are going to be playing the same team again next week in the postseason, you can’t show too much,” Lloyd said. “Obviously you want to win, but you want to have more of a tactical game.”
The Terriers earned eight penalty corners in the first half to UMaine’s one and finally converted on the sixth with 2:52 left before halftime. Junior midfielder Allie Dolce dribbled in and found Lloyd at the left post to flick the ball past UMaine sophomore goalkeeper Brittany Fleck.
“(Dolce) is just so strong on the ball,” Lloyd said of the assist. “It was terrific teamwork.”
UMaine gained momentum in the second half, outshooting the Terriers 7-3. They did not allow another penalty corner and took five of their own. The Black Bears failed to solve BU freshman goalkeeper Julie Collins though, who made five saves after replacing junior Amanda Smith at halftime. Smith made three first-half saves.
“In the first half, we definitely had some big momentum swings in their favor, and I think in the second half we had some of that in return,” UMaine coach Josette Babineau said. “I think in the second half we had a much better effort.”
Babineau pulled Fleck for an extra attacker following a timeout with just over six minutes left in the game and UMaine took four penalty corners in the final five minutes, but their normally efficient penalty corner unit could not convert the equalizer.
“Both teams, because we’re playing each other in the playoffs next week, penalty corners are kind of going to be a draw because nobody wants to really show anything before next weekend,” Babineau said.
The Black Bears were fortunate to start the second half with only a one-goal deficit. The Terriers outshot UMaine 11-2 in the opening half and forced Fleck to make several brilliant stops. Fleck (12-6) made 11 saves in the loss.
“We would like to convert a few more,” Lloyd said. “[Fleck] had some excellent saves and really tested us.”
“I thought [BU] played well and earned their chances,” Babineau said. “There were some at the end of the first half that I thought we just gave out too many penalty corners where we could have done a little bit better in that situation. So [we were] definitely fortunate that they had a string of penalty corners at the end of the first half that they didn’t score on.”
Babineau was not overly disappointed by the loss given the circumstances and is looking toward next weekend’s match-up.
“I think we played a pretty good game,” Babineau said. “I think we had some chances, and maybe just a little disappointed that we got kept off the scoreboard.”
Babineau looked at the game situation as more valuable than a practice.
“We’re still a young team, so any game that we can have is still very positive for us,” Babineau said. “You gain so much more in a game situation than you do at practice, as much as you can try to prepare for the other team and try to imitate what they do, until you actually face them. We gained a lot of experience in the game.”
BU coach Sally Starr felt the Terriers were snake-bitten in their non-conference schedule and commended the Terriers’ effort to preserve the lead and hold an explosive Black Bear offense off the scoreboard. BU scored just two goals in their final four games.
“Maine’s a very, very good hockey team,” Starr said. “In the second half, Maine was a little bit quicker. I was really expecting a very close game today and a very hard-fought game, and that’s exactly what we had.”
Prior to the game, UMaine’s five seniors Courtney Gingrich, Mallory Pollard, Jackie D’Amato, Ellen Andrews and Jaime Flagg were recognized at midfield.
