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Facing an undefeated, No.1 ranked defending national champion, the sub-.500 Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team found victory an unlikely outcome entering yesterday’s game. Despite high adrenaline in the first ever women’s lacrosse night game at McGuirk Stadium, the Minutewomen fulfilled their own low expectations, in a humbling 22-5 defeat.

It didn’t take long to silence any pregame murmurs of an upset, as undefeated powerhouse No. 1 Northwestern (10-0) dominated possession by winning nearly 70% of the draw controls. By the end of the first half, the team racked up a 15-2 lead that would prove more than enough to overpower the heavy underdog Minutewomen.

But although UMass (3-6) has compiled an overall record of 1-5 this season versus ranked or previously ranked teams, Venechanos remains steadfast in her scheduling philosophy of translating tough experiences into success when the Minutewomen open A-10 play this weekend.

‘Right now, I think our ticket to the NCAA’s is the A-10 tournament, so we as a coaching staff make the schedule as hard as we can so that we’re ready for anything,’ Venechanos said. ‘We’re playing against a girl who’s six feet [tall], and we’re playing against girls who are smaller. We’ve seen it all’

Yet in this game, where NU senior Hannah Nielson tied the all-time NCAA assist record, the four-time national champion Wildcats ultimately handed UMass its worst beating of the season.

Throughout a dominant Wildcat performance where NU once compiled an unanswered scoring streak of 12, Nielson tallied four assists to stay atop the nation’s season category (37), while serving as one of five separate NU players to score three or more goals.

The heavy underdog UMass squad was able to remain intense throughout, as senior leaders Meg Reddy added a hat trick to goals by freshman Dayna DeFelise and captain Holly Drown, who has now scored in each of the Minutewomen’s nine games. Still, the Minutewomen were outshot 39-18 in a recent stretch where they have allowed freshman goalie Katie Florence to see nearly 80 shots in just two games.

Early on, Reddy scored twice approximately 10 minutes into the first half to bring UMass within two, but that’s as close as the Minutewomen got, as NU launched into a 12-goal unanswered scoring streak highlighted by a hat trick from NU’s Danielle Spencer.

‘We have to have a short-term memory right now,’ Venechanos said of the loss. ‘We play La Salle in 48 hours, so we’re going to learn from this and bring this intensity Friday.’

Thankfully for their coaching staff, amnesia seemed rampant for the Minutewomen immediately after the loss, as players appeared loose, one even posing with a NU player for a photo at midfield. This was perhaps one of the eight players on the Wildcat roster who hail from Massachusetts, helping to bring out a sizeable evening crowd of 893, many wearing NU purple.

A fan favorite moment came just before the last minute of the game, when walk-on goalkeeper Leslie Barber shedded her warm-ups and jogged to midfield to replace starter Katie Florence. With the score at 21-5, the table was set for the three-year Andover high school native and former UMass club team goalkeeper to make her collegiate debut. Amidst raucous cheers from the Minutewomen bench, Barber tallied her first NCAA save against the best team in the nation in the final seconds of play.

According to Venechanos, the move meant little as far as a loss of confidence in Florence, who had played every minute of the season for UMass prior to last night’s match-up.

‘We told her [Florence] she was going to get lots of shots. Some we were hoping more low-angle than others but she stood strong. She continues to have a great season and she needs to take all of these different types of shots and all these types of situations into the A-10 tournament and I’m very confident she will.’

Holly Galvin can be reached at hgalvin@student.umass.edu.