Three and a half weeks ago, No. 12 Boston College lacrosse took down then-No. 2 Stanford to get over the .500 hump. That win was a catalyst for change, as the Eagles have gone 3–1 since, including two top-15 wins.
BC will meet No. 9 Stanford once again this Wednesday at 5 p.m. to kick off its postseason campaign, as the No. 2-seed Cardinal and No. 7-seed Eagles face off in the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals.
What will BC need to pull off another upset and start its postseason with a bang?
Make the game a defensive battle
If this game turns into an offensive shootout, BC’s chances of winning plummet.
BC is 0–5 in games that they allowed 12 or more goals, and have lost most of those games pretty handily. To win and advance, the Eagles will need to make this game into a defensive battle.
Look at BC’s two biggest wins of the season: over Stanford and then-No. 4 Syracuse. The Eagles held the Orange to just four goals, and Stanford did not reach 10 goals until there was 6:32 left in the fourth quarter.
To do this, BC must focus on securing draw controls to control possession and, therefore, the pace of the game.
Execute a clean offense
BC has been able to win this season despite its turnover woes, not because it has managed them well. BC gave the ball away 11 times against Stanford—and against Syracuse, that number got up to 16.
Turnovers didn’t cause BC to drop either of those matchups, but they did make those games closer than they needed to be. There were several times against the Orange when BC’s offense had a chance to score, only for the opportunity to be cut short by an errant pass or the ball getting knocked out of a stick.
BC will need to take advantage of every chance it gets against a team like Stanford, and that means not carelessly giving the ball away. This also goes back to BC’s need to control the pace of the game, as turnovers often become fast breaks going the other way.
Protect Shea Dolce
BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein has routinely put Shea Dolce’s name at the top of the list of best goaltenders in the country throughout Dolce’s past four seasons in the cage. But even the best keepers in the world don’t stand a chance if all the shots they face are coming off wide-open looks.
Unfortunately for BC, that has been the case at multiple points this season. Especially in some of the more lopsided losses BC has taken this year—such as against North Carolina and Northwestern—it seemed as though Dolce’s relatively subpar stat line stemmed from facing shots from point-blank range.
Walker-Weinstein acknowledged that fact after her team’s loss to UNC.
“We have to play better for Shea,” she said.
And BC has. Since the loss to the Tar Heels, Dolce has put up her best two save percentages of the year (.667 in BC’s win over Syracuse and .643 in a victory at Albany) and been the anchor for some of BC’s upsets. If BC’s defense can keep up this level of pressure and give its senior standout a chance to stop the Cardinal’s attack, the Eagles give themselves a solid shot at advancing to the ACC Semifinal.
Predictions
I expect this game to resemble the first one between the Eagles and the Cardinal—a back-and-forth affair, with each team grabbing momentum throughout and neither side managing to secure a lead larger than two or three goals.
But at the end of the day, BC’s postseason experience and battle-tested nature will be able to lead them to victory.
The Eagles have played six of the current top-10 teams, while Stanford has played only three. BC’s four-year seniors have won a national title, played in two, made it to three Final Fours, and won nine NCAA Tournament games. Stanford, meanwhile, has won one NCAA Tournament game in that span. With BC’s chances of hosting a tournament game hanging in the balance, its postseason experience will prove vital.
