The Boston College field hockey team suffered a conference defeat on Friday, losing to the Virginia Cavaliers 2-1 in double overtime at the Newton Campus Sports Complex.
The Eagles were unable to notch the victory in their first ACC home game of the season. BC came into the game seeking revenge after being sent home in the 2007 ACC quarterfinals by the Cavaliers in a 3-2 overtime thriller. But their efforts were simply not enough against a 9-1 Virginia team.
As the rain came down before the game, the Eagles looked surprisingly upbeat in such a dreary scene, firing each other up with chants and chest-bumps
during the starting lineup call, even bobbing and swinging to the National Anthem. They were clearly ready for the Cavaliers and had a mission that wasn't going to get lost in a little bad weather.
The conditions were not ideal. As play began, the rain created a noticeable puddle toward the center of the field that would have put Lake Superior to shame. No one would have been shocked if the players had swapped their uniforms for swim trunks. It was a wet one.
Despite the rain, the two teams wasted no time in putting on a show. Virginia capitalized first, with midfielder Paige Selenski scoring on a pass from Lauren Elstein just a few minutes into the game. The shot went left post, just out of goalkeeper Julia Berkowitz's reach.
After the first goal, the two teams traded drives, with each team struggling to find rhythm in the downpour. Late in the period, though, BC made the most of a corner opportunity. Sophomore Janna Anctil crossed it to forward Bob Dirks, who carefully set up the ball for Chelsey Feole, who reared back and fired it past UVA's Amy Desjadon to tie it up at 1-1. Feole ended the game with three shots on target, while Dirks put five on goal.
The second half was another tug-of-war, as the teams went back and forth up and down the field. Neither team could really get much going, as the ball wouldn't move faster than a snail's pace.
Potential breakaways turned into breakdowns. Crossovers and jukes were sloppy and stunted. The Eagles looked especially slowed by the poor conditions. They did manage to keep Desjadon busy, posting six shots on the period, four of them on goal. A scoreless second half sent this game into overtime.
In the first overtime, BC had a chance to break the tie with an early corner, but was stopped by an impressive Desjadon. Virginia was next with a breakaway of its own, but the Eagles defense was suffocating, and freshman Kate Gillis ran the attacker down and hit the ball away to Emily Kozniuk to get it out of the circle. Both girls helped stop several key drives in overtime, preventing Virginia from attempting a single shot and sending the game into a second overtime.
Again the competition was stiff, but when Katie Quaglia was taken off the field for five minutes due to a penalty, BC found itself one man down. UVA was quick to take advantage, with Traci Rajukas attempting her third shot of night. Berkowitz was not about to give the game away, diving to keep the ball in front of her. From there, Kozniuk recorded her first defensive save of the season, batting the rolling ball away from the cage.
As time ran down on the second overtime and penalty strokes looked more and more like a possibility, Virginia put the pressure on BC one last time. The Cavaliers took control of the ball outside the circle and managed to slip and slide their way past the BC defense, where Elstein once again set up Selenski, this time for the game-winning goal that sprayed past Berkowitz and ended the game.
The defeat puts BC at 6-2 on the season. The Eagles' schedule has them busing to Providence College to take on the Friars this Wednesday Oct. 1, at 7 p.m.
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