The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team won its fifth straight game in convincing fashion, defeating Sacred Heart, 21-7, on Sunday afternoon.
The Minutewomen (5-0) received scoring contributions from 12 different players en route to the blowout win.
UMass was led in scoring by sophomore standout Katie Ferris, who netted four goals and earned three assists for an impressive seven-point game. Ferris now has a total of 20 goals and 12 assists, making her 32 points by far the most on the team.
Melissa Carelli scored a hat trick of her own and added on an assist for an impressive four-point game. Coming into the game, Carelli had recorded two goals on the season.
The Minutewomen dominated the scorebook in all facets of the game. UMass had 36 shots to the Pioneers’ 17.
UMass also had a huge advantage when it came to draw controls, as the team controlled 20 face-offs, including seven by Nina Sarcona.
Overall, UMass coach Angela McMahon was very pleased with her team’s performance especially when it came to time of possession.
“We did a good job of coming out and dictating the pace of the game and really controlling ball possession,” she said. “Draw controls and ground balls were huge for us today and I think it obviously gave us more opportunities on attack to put the ball away.
“It’s a credit to Nina [Sarcona] but also everyone around the circle, everyone around and boxing out behind the line,” she added. Overall it was just a great team effort in making sure that we had the ball in our possession.”
Defensively, the Minutewomen overwhelmed Sacred Heart (1-2), causing 19 turnovers and making it virtually impossible for the Pioneers to clear the ball all day.
UMass did continue its trend to commit too many fouls as it did so 22 times, but many of these occurred when the game was already well out of reach. Additionally, the Minutewomen limited Sacred Heart to a limited number of free position opportunities of which the Pioneers converted none.
UMass got on the board first with three straight goals to open up a 3-0 advantage just over seven minutes into the game.
The Pioneers got one back to cut the lead to 3-1, but the Minutewomen responded with seven straight goals to open up a 10-1 lead with 7:32 left in the first half.
With the game already well in hand, McMahon pulled veteran goalie Katie Florence for freshman Rachel Vallarelli.
The Pioneers scored an early goal on the freshman, but Vallarelli was stellar from then on and UMass went into the half with a 13-2 lead.
The Minutewomen started right where they left off in the beginning of the second half, picking up seven straight goals to give themselves a 20-2 advantage.
The seven-goal stretch was highlighted by an Amy Tiernan goal after she had fought for possession and was rewarded for it by Ferris.
Carelli also picked up two of her goals during the run, including a breakaway directly off the draw control. Lauren Terracciano also picked up a goal on an assist from Ellie Bullitt, who had been awarded a free position opportunity.
Sacred Heart got one back, but Kelsey Sheridan quickly got it back for UMass on a free position goal.
With most of their starters out at this point and third string goalie Jamie Schiloski in net, the Minutewomen seemed careless with the ball. The Pioneers tacked on four straight goals to end the game on a positive note on an otherwise disappointing day.
Up next for UMass will be its first road test of the season against Vermont on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Cameron McDonough can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_McDonough.
