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BU Bridge Logo

Week of 23 April 1999

Vol. II, No. 32

Sports

 

Crew

Upcoming regattas on the Charles include men's crew hosting Columbia on Saturday, April 24, at 7 a.m. and women's crew hosting Wisconsin and Northeastern the following day, Sunday, April 25, at the same time.

Women's Softball

Upcoming home doubleheaders at Malvern Field: Central Connecticut on Tuesday, April 27, at 3 p.m. and Vermont on Friday, April 30, at 2:30 p.m.

 

Women's lacrosse tears up the turf in record-breaking season

By Amy Dean

If women's lacrosse head coach Sue Murphy had only one guiding principle to coach by, Murphy's Law would be this: If you build it and if you support it, they will win.

Therein lies the secret of success of the BU women's lacrosse team this year (11-3, 4-1 in America East). Murphy has the solid backing of the University behind her and her team, and it has allowed her to make some amazing leaps and bounds in the program, which started four short years ago.

This season she got the green light to hire two new assistant coaches, and each has brought outstanding playing experience and added depth to the coaching staff. Maura Schneider is a 1996 graduate of Dartmouth College who earned All-Ivy and All-America lacrosse honors and played in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four round. Amy Meldrim, a 1995 graduate of Cornell University, earned Best Defensive Players awards and has previous coaching experience at William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y., and Cortland High School in New York.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse midfielder Michelle Ellsworth (CAS'00) is one of BU's top defensive players.


"For three years, it was just Barb DiArcangelo and me," says Murphy. "Barb has been like another head coach on the field. Now the hardest job I have is to delegate responsibility. Four of us can give the players more one-on-one attention, developing their physical talents as well as honing their mental strengths on the field." DiArcangelo, who graduated from Old Dominion in 1994, is an accomplished goalkeeper who currently plays on the U.S. team and brings a wealth of coaching experience from Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, Va., and from a number of lacrosse camps and clinics.

So just how good is this year's lacrosse team? Last year at this time they were 1-7. This season they have burned up the competition with wins by margins of up to 18 points. As a point of comparison, last year Temple beat BU 30-2, humiliating the Terriers on their home turf. But in the season's first game, BU met up with Temple in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the Terriers wrestled a win, 10-9.

Since the victory over Temple, the Terriers have dealt resounding defeats to four America East opponents, beating Drexel by 16, Vermont by 18, New Hampshire by 10, and Towson by 12. The win against New Hampshire was particularly sweet for Murphy and the team. Last year UNH beat BU by 10, and with that loss prevented the Terriers from going to the America East tournament. "This is the first year we've beaten Harvard and Temple," Murphy says. But she also points out that the players are keeping their dominating wins in perspective. Although they beat the Big East's Boston College, along with a tough Towson team, they lost to conference rival Delaware and will play Hofstra on the road.

Terrier Scoring Leaders


Goals

Assists

Points

Chrissy Lombard

38

16

54

Jennifer Manning

15

15

29

Kyle Rutowski

22

7

29

Katie Nordhoff

25

2

27

Jean Cooney

23

2

25

Still, such wide point spreads have given Murphy the opportunity to test her bench players, and they have more than risen to the challenge. When pressed to single out players, Murphy starts naming one after another -- from every class, including freshman newcomers who have been named Rookie of the Week and Player of the Week. Murphy rattles off each player's achievements and strengths, and then concludes, "It's hard to single out players. They've all been wonderful this year. I have just 17 on the roster. We're like the Cinderella team because most other schools we face have junior varsity teams and other squads. Our players are very intelligent women who know 15 to 20 offensive plays and several defenses. And they're in good shape."

The Terriers are currently ranked 13th in the nation and 6th in scoring offense. They are ranked second in scoring margin -- right behind four-time national champion Maryland -- and second in win percentage, once again nipping at the Terps' tails.

In addition, Boston Univer-sity leads the nation in scoring defense, which means that the defenders are scoring.

Overall, says Murphy, "We wanted to be ranked 15th in the nation this year. I like to compare our team to the elite lacrosse teams in the nation, the University of North Carolina and Duke. It's really only the third season in which we've had a chance to recruit athletes, because we picked up players from the lacrosse club when we started the program."

And the second Murphy's Law for this season? "We want to go to the America East Conference tournament this year."


Coverage of women's lacrosse and other Terrier teams is on the new Web site at www.gobu.com, which is updated nightly.


 

Terrier Scoreboard

Men's Crew

Women's Crew

Apr. 3

BU won 1 of 5 races against Brown

Apr. 3

BU won 3 of 5 races against George Washington and the U.S. Naval Academy

Apr. 10

BU won 2 of 5 races against Northeastern

Apr. 10

BU won 2 of 5 races against Dartmouth and Yale

Apr. 17

BU won 2 of 5 races against Dartmouth and Rutgers

Apr. 17

BU lost all 5 races to Brown

Men's Golf

Women's Golf

Apr. 10-11

BU 13th of 28 at the Yale Spring Opener

Apr. 10-11

BU 4th of 10 at the Lady Eagle Invitational

Apr. 15

BU 14th of 21 at the Lou Flumere Massachusetts Invitational

Apr. 17-18

BU 6th place at the Hartford Invitational

Men's Lacrosse

Women's Lacrosse

Mar. 31

BU 10, Rhode Island 6

Mar. 31

BU 17, New Hampshire 7

Apr. 3

Coast Guard 10, BU 9 (in 4th overtime)

Apr. 3

BU 20, Vermont 2

Apr. 8

Stonehill 8, BU 7

Apr. 4

Syracuse 10, BU 9

Apr. 10

BU 14, Northeastern 10

Apr. 7

BU 15, Harvard 6

Apr. 10

Bridgewater State 10, BU 8

Apr. 11

Old Dominion 6, BU 5

Apr. 12

BU 19, Worcester Polytechnic 8

Apr. 13

BU 13, BC 8

Apr. 16

BU 15, Towson 3

Apr. 18

Delaware 11, BU 8

Men's Rugby

Softball

Apr. 3

Amherst 37, BU 6

Mar. 30

BU 2, Providence 0

Apr. 10

BU 45, Worcester Polytechnic 42

Mar. 30

Providence 4, BU 3 (10 innings)

Apr. 17

BU 7, Wheaton 5*

Apr. 1

BU 5, Iona 0 (doubleheader)

Apr. 17

BU 20, Bryant 15*

Apr. 1

BU 5, Iona 0

Apr. 18

Southern Connecticut 30, BU 25*

Apr. 3

BU 2, Fairfield 1 (doubleheader)

*at the Beast of the East Tournament

Apr. 3

BU 2, Fairfield 0

Men's Tennis

Apr. 7

BU 8, Brown 0 (doubleheader)

Mar. 30

St. John's 5, BU 2

Apr. 7

BU 9, Brown 1

Apr. 1

Providence 6, BU 1

Apr. 10

Delaware 4, BU 3 (doubleheader)

Apr. 10

BU 6, Hartford 1

Apr. 10

BU 3, Delaware 1 (12 innings)

Apr. 15

BU 4, Tufts 3

Apr. 13

BU 5, Harvard 0

Apr. 17

BC 4, BU 3

Apr. 17

BU 5, Hofstra 4 (doubleheader)

Apr. 18

BU 5, Rhode Island 2

Apr. 17

Hofstra 1, BU 0

Women's Tennis

Apr. 18

BU 4, Drexel 0 (doubleheader)

Mar. 26

Virginia 6, BU 0

Apr. 18

BU 2, Drexel 0

Mar. 27

Old Dominion 5, BU 4

Mar. 28

Richmond 6, BU 1

Apr. 3

Dartmouth 5, BU 4

Apr. 14

BC 6, BU 3

Apr. 17

BU 5, Syracuse 1