Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

UMass drops two straight at home over weekend

The No. 7 Massachusetts field hockey team dropped its second straight game at home, falling to No. 2 Maryland 4-1 on Sunday afternoon.

Cade Belisle/ Collegian

Going into the half trailing only 1-0, the Minutewomen (7-4) gave up three second half goals to the Terrapins (10-0), with two of the three goals coming roughly four minutes apart.

UMass coach Carla Tagliente knew her team was in for a tough challenge. The Terrapins came into Sunday’s contest with the top-rated offense in the nation, averaging 5.63 goals per game, and certainly lived up to that billing in the second half.

“When you think of the offense Maryland has, it’s not just their front three, but a very collective effort from a powerful group,” Tagliente said. “It was demonstrated through two of their goals that came off of corner breakouts that were just outstanding.”

Although her team gave up a season-high four goals, Tagliente was pleased with the defensive effort on Sunday, especially in the first half of the game.

“I thought we did a great job in the first half limiting them to only three shots,” she said. “We executed our game plan and tactics great, and the fact that they could capitalize and score four goals off of 10 shots just shows how powerful their attack could be.”

Senior Lindsay Bowman was the lone scorer for the Minutewomen, scoring her second goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-1 with 11 minutes to go, but the Terrapins answered 10 minutes later to extend their lead to 4-1. Lack of execution on penalty corners plagued UMass, which failed to capitalize on 12 set pieces.

“I thought Maryland’s defense on corners did some nice things and they scouted us well, but we didn’t execute great and they were able to capitalize with a goal at the other end on two separate occasions,” Tagliente said.

With a three game road trip set to begin on Wednesday versus Northeastern, Tagliente believes her team can use this game as valuable experience and get back to its winning ways.

“I think we can build off today’s game and just focus on playing great hockey, which I felt we did today against a great opponent,” Tagliente said.

UMass falls in OT

The Minutewomen suffered their first home loss of the season Friday, falling to UNH 3-2 in overtime after squandering a 2-0 lead in the second half.

An own goal that deflected off of UMass sophomore goalkeeper Sam Carlino in the 10th minute of overtime gave the Wildcats the comeback victory.

Goals by junior Lauren Allymohamed and freshman Nicole Miller gave the Minutewomen a 2-0 lead in the second half. But with 13 minutes to go in the game, UNH was tied the game in a span of three minutes, scoring goals in the 66th and 69th minute to level the score at 2-2.

Tagliente doesn’t think the blown lead was a matter of getting too comfortable with a two-goal advantage, but a case of her team trying to hold on to the lead later in the game.

“I would describe it as playing and trying to hold on to something when there’s nothing really to hold on to at the later stages of the game,” Tagliente said. “I think we played well enough to win and outplayed them for 85 percent of the game, but that 15 percent allowed UNH to get back into the game. I believe losing is healthy sometimes and it’s a wake-up call for us.”

Senior defender Hannah Prince saw this game as a good learning experience and is ready to move forward.

“It’s not that we weren’t hungry for more goals, but we also wanted to hold our lead so we probably were playing too safely,” Prince said. “I think for the future we need to be hungry for all 70 minutes and keep playing as a unit and we’ll succeed.”

UMass heads to Northeastern on Wednesday to begin a three game road trip, culminating with its first conference game of the year on Oct. 12 versus Saint Louis.

 

Jason Kates can be reached at [email protected].

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