Boston University Lacrosse Schedule: Second Verse

PROGRAM SCHEDULE PROPAGANDA: PRESS RELEASE
THIS IS WHY WE FIGHT: THE SCHEDULE

Here are some schedule highlights and games of note:

No Shimmy in the Noncon
February 7: Mercer; February 14: at Canisius; February 24: at Providence; February 28: at Vermont; April 7: Harvard; May 2: Duke

Two names jump off the page as games where the Terriers may walk away with open wounds: Harvard and Duke. Yet, when you start digging into the team's other nonconference opponents, Boston University put together an out-of-conference slate that is uniquely challenging for a second-year program and provides some important opportunities for growth: Vermont isn't decidedly out of the Terriers' grasp; Providence is in a massive transition after losing nine seniors that played in at least 13 games in 2014, including Andrew Barton and Sean Wright; and Mercer, while improved in 2014 and returning around 71 percent of their starts from last season, has 31 freshmen and sophomores on the roster (that's about 75 percent of the team's roster). If the Terriers can come out of this portion of the team's slate with a 3-3 record -- that'd be a best case scenario, one that would be an admittedly massive stretch for Boston University -- the Terriers would have such a depth of good feelings that they could likely power a small country.

If This Man Should Fall . . .
February 21: at Lehigh; March 7: at Colgate; March 14: Lafayette; March 21: Bucknell; March 28: at Navy; April 4: at Army; April 11: Loyola; April 17: Holy Cross

The Terriers didn't do a bad job in their first run through the Patriot League last season: A 2-6 effort with wins against Holy Cross and Lafayette kept Boston University just on the outside of the Patriot League Tournament. As a first-year program in a league filled with predators, that team's 2-6 campaign looks even better when you consider that the Terriers were outclassed on the scoreboard only twice:

There's nothing there to be ashamed of in that table: Two big losses to Loyola and Navy were balanced with respectable defeats at the hands of Lehigh, Colgate, Bucknell, and Army. The trick for the Terriers in 2015 isn't to turn some of those respectable losses into victories; rather, it's about maintaining the team's win capacity in a league that's expected to improve from a somewhat down year last spring. There's inherent difficulty in that, especially given the fact that Boston University is still finding its way across the Division I landscape. Things went about as well as they could have last season for the Terriers in the conference, and whether B.U. can find ways to create and carry forward momentum into a competitive Patriot League in 2015 will help define the team's season in the coming spring.