No. 19 Lacrosse Set to Face No. 6 Penn in NCAA First Round
Terriers, Quakers meet in national tournament for third time in last four years
Senior Traci Landy will break the school record for career games played on Saturday.

Senior Traci Landy will break the school record for career games played on Saturday.

May 14, 2010

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The Boston University lacrosse team hopes the third time's the charm against Penn in NCAA play when they face the eighth-seeded Quakers in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Championship on Saturday (May 15) at 1 p.m. at Immaculata University in Malvern, Pa. The Terriers, who won their sixth straight America East title last weekend, fell to the Quakers in the NCAAs in 2007 and 2008. Saturday's contest will be broadcast live on WTBUSports.com.

BU (11-8), ranked 19th in the most recent IWLCA poll, is making its sixth straight appearance in the NCAAs and eighth overall. A win on Saturday would allow the Terriers to reach the quarterfinal round for just the third time in program history.

Penn (14-3) ran the table in Ivy League play before claiming the first-ever Ivy tournament title against Dartmouth by a score of 9-8 in its most recent game on May 2. The Quakers' best non-conference wins this season came against Hofstra and Johns Hopkins.

The Quakers are paced by senior midfielder Ali DeLuca, who was named one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Trophy on Wednesday. She leads the team in goals (40), assists (25) and draw controls (34). Sophomore Erin Brennan (29g, 18a) and junior Giulia Giordano (24g, 20a) have added 47 and 44 points, respectively.

Penn boasts the second-best scoring defense in the country, allowing just 6.71 goals per game. Senior Emily Szelest has started all 17 games and has earned a .429 save percentage.

All season long, the Terriers have been led offensively by the senior duo of McKinley Curro and Traci Landy. Curro has a team-best 65 points on 48 goals and 17 assists, while Landy has put up 56 points on the strength of a team-high 50 goals. For their careers, Curro (134g, 83a) holds a slim 217-216 edge over Landy (187g, 29a) in points. Landy will break BU's career games record on Saturday by playing in her 79th contest.


 

 

Fellow senior Xan Weitzel has added 43 points, including an assist total of 34 that ranks 11th in the nation. Junior Rachel Collins leads the Terriers in both draw controls (44) and ground balls (41) while classmate Corcoran Downey has a team-best 25 caused turnovers.

In goal, senior Rachel Klein has started all of BU's 19 contests and boasts a 9.56 goals-against average and a .488 save percentage. Her goals-against average ranks 18th among Division I netminders.

In BU and Penn's most recent NCAA meeting in 2008, the Terriers dropped a hard-fought 8-5 contest in the quarterfinal round one year after a 11-5 setback in the first round. BU is 0-3 all-time against Penn following a 13-7 loss during the 2009 regular season.

In NCAA play, BU is 2-7 in the program's history since first qualifying for the tournament in 2000.