The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team received contributions from unlikely sources in its 20-7 win over Marist on Saturday.
UMass’ leading scorer on the season, Katie Ferris, failed to tally a single point in the win after registering 15 points in the first two games.
UMass had a total of 33 shots in the game, 20 of which found the back of the net. Ferris only attempted two of those shots, but UMass was still able to pick up the easy win.
One might expect this would lead to trouble for the Minutewomen, but plenty of other players proved they are more than capable of providing offensively.
The leading scorer for the Minutewomen was junior attacker Lauren Terracciano, who recorded five goals and two assists for an impressive seven-point day.
Heading into Saturday’s game, Terracciano was fourth on the team in points with five, but her monster game moved her up to second, only three points behind Ferris for the team lead.
“[Terracciano] is very dynamic. She can score a goal, she is very quick, but she also is a great feeder. She keeps her head up and she is sort of like a little point guard back there for us in terms of finding the cutters,” said head coach Angela McMahon.
Perhaps even more unexpected was the four-goal outburst by sophomore attacker Sam Rush, who came into the game with only two points on the season.
“Sam Rush works really well off ball, and she is a great cutter in terms of reading her defender and knowing when to cut,” said McMahon.
Rush and Terracciano are looking to make a bigger impact after quiet seasons last year.
“The two of them combined is a great duo. I was really glad they stepped up today,” said McMahon.
Freshman midfielder Ellie Bullitt also contributed, as she scored her first goal of her collegiate career, and added four assists.
Other unlikely scoring contributions came from Cori Murray, Melissa Carelli and Danielle Pelletier. Murray recorded two goals to bring her season points total up to five. Carelli’s lone goal was her first of the season. Pelletier, a senior, has had a slow start to the beginning of the season and her goal against Marist was her first of the season.
The different contributions were a welcome sign to a very pleased McMahon. “That’s a goal for us on attack, to have everyone be a threat and anyone that’s on the field in that attacking zone needs to be a threat, because when we play NCAA tournament teams we’re going to have to beat them as a team and beat them together.”
“I’m glad that we obviously showed that we have the ability to have different scoring threats, which makes us more dynamic as a team,” said McMahon.
UMass will look for the trend to continue on Wednesday as they take on New Hampshire.
Cameron McDonough can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_McDonough.
