After 120 minutes of weekend action and Senior Weekend celebrations, the Boston University Terriers (24-6-4, 18-6-3 HEAW) swept the University of Connecticut Huskies (16-16-2, 13-12-2 HEAW) at Walter Brown Arena by scores of 6-2 and 3-1 to close out their 2019-2020 regular season.
For Terrier co-captain Natasza Tarnowski, Senior Day was “special.” She added that, “Senior Day has been awesome. The crowd was awesome. Being in such a big class is really nice.”
With eight seniors – defenders Alexandra Calderone, Abby Cook, Katie Shanahan, Breanna Scarpaci and Abby Stanley, as well as forwards Deziray de Sousa, capt. Natasza Tarnowski and capt. Sammy Davis– all playing in their final regular season games, head coach Brian Durocher made sure all of them got starts over the weekend.
Friday’s contest started with an explosive first period. Eight minutes in, BU scored two goals in one minute. Julia Nearis scored first, followed by Jesse Compher. Five minutes later, Courtney Correia added one of her own. Taylor Wabick finally answered back for UConn at minute 15 in the first to mae it 3-1 BU after one.
In the second, Compher scored her second of the game. Three minutes later, Sammy Davis got the seniors’ first goal of the weekend, making it 5-1 after two. Later in the third, Viki Harkness scored a power play goal to close it to 5-2. Nara Elia answered back with three minutes to go to end Friday’s game with a 6-2 win.
Saturday’s matinee was preceded by the official recognition of the eight seniors, and then BU got right to work. After Abby Cook took the first shot just 14 seconds in, Elia scored her second of the weekend 20 seconds later. 50 seconds after that, just 1:24 into the first period, Abby Cook got one through Fisher to make it 2-0 BU in less than 90 seconds.
Tarnowski scored one for herself to make it 3-0 BU to close out the first. Only a Jessie Aney goal in the second would change the score for the rest of the game, bringing the second game to its eventual final score of 3-1. All told, BU’s seniors scored 12 points, 3 goals and 9 assists, and Corrine Schroeder went 49/52 in saves over the two games.
For this group of players, the 24 regular season wins is a higher total than any of them had ever accomplished in a season. Coach Durocher knows how important it is to set the bar this high.
“It’s a great body of work for the regular season with twenty-four wins, it sets a new standard for [everyone] in that locker room,” he said.
The Huskies will head to Chestnut Hill to face the Boston College Eagles to open up the playoffs while the Terriers prepare to host the University of Maine Black Bears. Coach Durocher knows full well that playoff time is a hit of the reset button for his hungry team.
“You’re always going to get a good opponent and a tough opponent, and we’re going to get one in Maine… talented at all three positions,” Durocher said.
Tarnowski echoed Durocher’s sentiment, saying she and the whole team know that the fight has just begun.
“Although it’s sad it’s senior day, we know we still have a lot of games left and we’re excited… It was a great game, and we’ve had great games, but playoffs are like a whole new season, so we’re definitely looking forward to that.”
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