#9 Boston College Women's Lacrosse Starts Season By Smoking BU, Holy Cross

For the past few seasons, the women's lacrosse team has been knocking on the door of national title contender status but have not quite been able to break through. The quest for that breakthrough began anew again last weekend as the team, currently ranked #9 in the nation, started its 2016 season.

The Eagles' first game of the year was originally supposed to be this past Sunday at BU, but the projected subzero temperatures led to BC and BU moving the game up to Friday. Even with the date moved, the game was still played in frigid conditions. The cold didn't slow down BC's offense, though; the Eagles hung an 18-9 pounding on the Terriers, just topping the 17-9 beating BC delivered to BU last spring on home turf.

Freshman Sam Apuzzo and senior Caroline Margolis co-led the scoring with four goals each. Apuzzo is a highly touted recruit out of Long Island who scored a staggering 107 goals in her senior season in high school, en route to Under Armour All-American and Newsday All Long Island honors. Look for Apuzzo to quickly become a go-to player for the Eagles.

Sarah Mannelly, one of the team's star players, scored the first goal of the game and season, and went on to tally a hat trick.

BC followed up the BU game with another trouncing of a local opponent yesterday afternoon, throttling Holy Cross 19-6, outshooting the Crusaders 37-13 in the process. 11 different Eagles recorded points in the comprehensive victory, showing how well balanced BC's attack is.

This time, it was Tess Chandler's time to lead the team in scoring, with 4 goals on the day. Apuzzo added 3 more to take the early throne as the team's leading scorer.

ACC play gets underway next for BC, as they travel to South Bend on Sunday to take on Notre Dame at noon. As is so often the case, the ACC is a dominant conference in women's lacrosse, and so as usual every game is a brutal test for BC. The irish are ranked #11 in the early polls.