The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team may have just one more chance to take on longtime rival Temple as the two teams meet for their final regular-season Atlantic 10 matchup on Friday before the Owls leave for the renamed American Athletic Conference in July.
The Minutewomen (11-2, 3-0 A-10) escaped with a pair of one-goal victories over Richmond and George Washington to remain unbeaten in A-10 play. But expect an even greater challenge from Temple (8-4, 3-0 A-10), which is currently tied with UMass with four A-10 championships apiece.
“Any time we play Temple, it’s a great game,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “They’re a very good team, they’re well-coached, very disciplined. They’re very good about coming in with a game plan against us, they’ve always been able to keep the score pretty close with us.”
While she acknowledged that Friday will likely mark the final meeting between the two rivals, McMahon is more concerned with her team staying focused against a team loaded with veteran leaders.
Senior midfielders Stephany Parcell and Charlotte Swavola, who lead the Owls in scoring with 40 and 33 points, respectively, present the biggest offensive threats for the Minutewomen.
Powering their side to three consecutive wins, each has passed the quarter-century mark for goals, combining for 53 so far this season.
McMahon said that fundamentals such as keeping possession, winning draw controls and capping turnovers are keys to dictating tempo and maintaining consistency against such scoring threats.
Junior attacks Katie Ferris and Sam Rush sit atop the stat sheet for the Minutewomen, followed closely by senior attack Lauren Terracciano.
The trio has combined for 134 points on 98 goals through 13 games this season.
Ferris, who has 56 points for the year, will sit atop the UMass all-time points list with her next tally, moving ahead of Jackie Lyons.
“It’s a huge deal,” McMahon said. “And not only is it a huge deal, but it’s unbelievable that she’s doing it in her junior year with multiple games left — then she has her whole senior year to look forward to. The amount of people that have come through this program, the caliber of players, the amount of All-Americans, it’s amazing that she’s able to sustain this throughout her whole career.”
Terracciano said that she is excited for Ferris’s milestone and would even like to be the one to get her the point. She also said that aside from Ferris, the Minutewomen have multiple ways to put away goals.
“We like to think of ourselves as a seven person attack,” Terracciano said. There’s not just one person who can score, there’s not just two people who can score. We really take pride in having seven threats to the goal.”
Terracciano said that after running the gauntlet with close matches this past weekend, it is necessary to rebound with fresh energy.
“The biggest focus is probably being mentally focused,” Terracciano said. “We just have to focus on the little things going into this weekend because the little things matter the most. No matter if it’s in the first minute of the game or the last, the little things add up. (We) really have to try to win each minute and not get ahead of ourselves.”
Peter Cappiello can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Cappiello.
