WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross field hockey team will open its season at home against Boston University this Sunday, March 7 at 1 p.m.
The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+
What you need to know about Holy Cross (6-12, 2-4 PL in 2019):
- The Crusaders are coming off their third postseason appearance in the last four years. While they only won two conference games in 2019, they did enough to win the tiebreaker over Boston University and Lehigh for the tournament's fourth seed.
- Minke Koomen led the team last year with nine goals and three assists for 21 points. The goal and point totals were third and fourth respectively across the conference.
- Sinead Walsh and Olivia Venezia also return as the team's fourth and fifth leading scorers from last season. As a rookie, Walsh recorded two goals and four assists for eight points, while Venezia had three goals and one assist for seven points.
- Emily Devine, coming off her first All-Patriot League selection when she was named to the second team last season, has been named to the Preseason All-Patriot League team to start this year.
What you need to know about Boston University (6-12, 2-4 PL in 2019):
- Boston University is coming off the first season in which it did not qualify for the postseason since joining the Patriot League in 2013. The Terriers had made it to the playoffs for six straight years before 2019.
- BU had two players named to the Preseason All-Patriot League team in Miya Denison and Kathryn Scheerer. Denison had two goals and one assist last year, while Scheerer had four assists.
- The Terriers' top returning scorer from last year is sophomore Ellie McIntyre who was fourth on the team with four goals and one assist.
- They also return Caroline Kelly in goal who started just over half the team's games as a freshman and posted a .671 save percentage and a 2.63 goals against average.
Last time they met:
- BU and Holy Cross played a tightly contested, back-and-forth game last season that the Terriers eventually won, 5-4.
- BU struck first in the first quarter, but the Crusaders would score twice in the second to take a 2-1 lead into halftime. Four goals were scored in the third period in alternating order to get to the end of the third frame with Holy Cross up, 4-3. The Terriers would score twice in the final quarter to grab the win.
- All five Terrier goals were scored by the same two players, Alisa Connolly and Jodie Conolly, neither of which are listed on this year's roster.
