On the brink of breaking the BU single-season goal record, sophomore midfielder Rebecca Golderman was held scoreless for the first time this season in the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team’s 11-6 loss to New Hampshire.
The Bearcats (6-10, 2-3 America East) looked stale in their faceoff with UNH (3-12, 3-3 AE) on Saturday afternoon, dropping their fourth game in their last five matchups. Despite a 16-save effort from junior goaltender Emma Jehle, BU was outshot 34-20, logging 14 fewer shots on goal.
“Without [Jehle’s] performance yesterday, it could have been a much wider margin for us,” said BU head coach Stephanie Allen. “She did a really nice job of knowing the shooters, their tendencies and coming up with some really key saves for us.”
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with goals from junior midfielder Rebecca Sennott and freshman midfielder Rylee Leonard. Near the halfway point in the first period, three consecutive goals by junior attack Tiffany Ryan, redshirt junior midfielder Jocelyn Penteck and junior midfielder Jacqueline Kennedy resulted in a short-lived 3-2 advantage for BU.
Tallies by UNH senior attack Devon Croke and junior midfielder Teagan Northrup concluded the low-scoring half with New Hampshire up, 4-3.
Northrup and company fueled the offense from the opening minutes of the second half. Although the Wildcats netted two straight goals within the first 10 minutes, Binghamton quickly responded with a goal from Ryan. Ryan recorded another goal two minutes later, but New Hampshire’s offense began to fire on all cylinders. With the score at 7-5 in favor of UNH, the Wildcats began to take over to finish the half on a 4-1 run. The Bearcats ultimately fell, marking another lackluster performance at the tail end of the regular season.
The absence of Golderman’s offensive prowess proved to be influential in deciding Binghamton’s third conference loss. Golderman had an uncharacteristic performance; she was unsuccessful on all five of her shot attempts and three of her free-position shots.
“We could expect, moving forward from her previous performances in conference, for her to get honed in on more,” Allen said. “Teams have been doing a decent job of playing her, but [Saturday, they] were just able to force her into some difficult situations and force some shots that she hadn’t had to see so far this season.”
With the final game of the regular season less than a week away, the Bearcats must seek improvements on both sides of the field. BU has looked stagnant both offensively and defensively down the stretch. They now have 10 or fewer goals in four of their last five contests and have given up 20-plus goals twice.
“Our execution [Saturday] just wasn’t there,” Allen said. “I thought we played with a lot of heart but didn’t take care of the little things. I thought we got outworked on a couple of plays and I thought that UNH just had better execution on the day. For us, that’s what we’re going to focus on for next Saturday and make sure that we finish the season extremely strong.”
Binghamton is set to square off with Albany in its season finale next Saturday afternoon. First draw is scheduled for 1 p.m. from the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York