By now, it's a script familiar enough to Boston College fans across multiple sports that it barely needs repeating. Team has historic start to season; team earns good seed in ACC and NCAA tournament play; team bows out, without a trophy and earlier than expected.
Sorry to be so depressing on a Monday morning, but that was the story again at BC on Sunday afternoon as the Loyola Greyhounds smoked the favored Eagles on BC's home field, 19-12, bringing the #5-ranked women's lacrosse team's season to a premature end in the round of 16. The loss serves as essentially the final blow in what has been a pretty disappointing season all around at the Heights, with only baseball's faint hopes of making the ACC tournament remaining as something that can be salvaged.
Loyola came out firing yesterday, dominating the game from the word go; the Greyhounds went up 7-1 in the opening minutes and led 8-2 at the half. Things only got worse early in the second half, with Loyola stretching its lead to 12-3 in the opening minutes.
BC finally had its best spell of the game and made it look like a comeback might be possible by rattling off a 5-1 run to get within 13-8. This run was highlighted by two goals by Covie Stanwick, who rached the 50-goal milestone on the season—a great moment for a player who had a truly phenomenal season.
Unfortunately, however, BC could get no closer. Loyola closed out the game strongly and finished BC off, ending a promising season.
After making cameo appearances in the Eagles' last few games, Mikaela Rix was again sidelined due to her injuries, which started in the game against Duke back in March that saw her carted off the field. That was obviously the turning point of BC's season, as in addition to being handed their first loss, they lost their team's leading scorer to that point. Covie Stanwick and Kenzie Kent, among others, did a phenomenal job picking up the offensive slack in Rix's absence, but it just wasn't enough to overcome that loss of attacking depth.
Unfortunately for BC, both Rix and Stanwick graduate this year, so they will need to restock the shelves if they are to make another run at it next year. Given BC women's lacrosse's continued improvement in recent years, I wouldn't doubt it—but this still stings as a missed opportunity.