The Bona Venture

Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: BV Archives SBU looks to get over the hump with two home games

With only one win in eight games to start the season, it would seem as though the lacrosse team is struggling with a depleted roster and a new coach.

However, the Bonnies have lost four games by one goal and two overtime games, showing some of the reason for their high loss total could be a lack of luck.

"We're right there," coach Christy Malone said. "Sometimes it is bad luck, but we need to keep fighting and keep moving on."

The Bonnies have a chance to move on with Atlantic 10 matchups against Richmond today at 4 p.m. and against George Washington Sunday at noon in home games at McGraw-Jennings Field.

"We're going to use a different game plan on attack," Malone said. "We want to be very aggressive and hopefully we can create more turnovers on defense."

Richmond is only 4-7 on the season but has lost to three nationally ranked teams, including Virginia and Maryland who were both ranked No. 2 at the time of their games. Oregon is the third ranked team to have beaten them, ranked No. 14 at the time. Oregon also defeated the Bonnies this season by a score of 11-10 in overtime March 26.

The Spiders started the season ranked No. 20 and have jumped as high as No. 18. They are 2-0 in the A-10 and this past week both junior attack Allison Furstenburg and freshman midfielder Anne Ryan were named the A-10 Player of the Week and A-10 Rookie of the Week, respectively.

"A win against Richmond would be big," Malone said. "If there was a year to beat them, I definitely think this is the year. It's not going to just be an average game for us, but our best of the year. We need to shut down two players and I think we'll be alright."

George Washington is 3-7 on the season but has also lost to three nationally ranked teams in No. 10 Georgetown, No. 9 Johns Hopkins and No. 15 George Mason.

The Colonials are 1-1 in the A-10 and are coming off a 9-8 overtime loss to Massachusetts, while the Bonnies dropped their A-10 opener against Temple last Friday, 10-8. The Owls scored six goals to end the first half and pull away to a 7-3 lead.

However, the Bonnies were able to cut the lead to 9-8 with 5:55 left, but could not convert any shots before the Owls scored a goal with three seconds remaining.

Senior co-captain midfielder Kim Ross and sophomore attack Patty Nessle had two goals and one assist each while freshman midfielder Christine Hanley scored two goals.

Continued...

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