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 women’s lacrosse starts season with blowout 18-4 win over UMass Lowell.

Cade Belisle/Daily Collegian
Cade Belisle/Daily Collegian

Massachusetts women’s lacrosse coach Angela McMahon knew that with the departures of Katie Ferris and Sam Rush, the Minutewomen would need to generate offense from a number of different players this season.

McMahon got her wish Saturday, as 11 players scored for UMass in an 18-4 win over UMass Lowell at McGuirk Alumni Stadium in the Minutewomen’s season opener. It was the River Hawks’ first game in program history.

Ferris (44 goals, 41 assists) and Rush (67 goals, nine assists) combined for 161 of 422 offensive points in 2014, 38.1 percent of UMass’ entire scoring. But in their first appearance of the season, the Minutewomen answered the challenge.

“On attack we have seven different threats,” midfielder Nicole Troost said. “It’s not coming from one, it’s not coming from two, it’s coming from seven this year and that’s a huge deal.”

“In previous years we would always look for one player to take over and always go to goal, but this year every person on our team can score and be a threat. We’re really working as a team,” attack Erika Eipp said.

The Minutewomen jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the first half after outshooting UMass Lowell 20-2 in the first 30 minutes of play. Amy Tiernan scored the first goal of the season nine minutes, 23 seconds into the game and scored her second of the game after taking the draw and coasting the rest of the distance to put UMass ahead 6-0 with 5:29 left in the half.

Eipp, Eileen McDonald, Hannah Murphy and Maeve Cowley also all scored first half goals to help build the early lead for UMass. Only McDonald’s goal was assisted on, as she received a pass from Eipp and beat River Hawks goalkeeper Courtney Barrett. Barrett allowed six goals after facing 20 shots in the first half and ended the day with 14 saves and 18 goals allowed.

Murphy finished the day with a game-high three goals as she scored her second and third goals just 46 seconds apart to give the Minutewomen a double-digit lead at 11-1.

Eipp, Troost, Murphy, McDonald, Kate Farnham, Callie Santos, Ashley Faulhaber, Meaghan Bowen, and Holly Turner all scored second half goals as the Mintuewomen erupted for 12 goals in the final 30 minutes to put the game out of reach.

Despite allowing the 18 goals, McMahon believed that Barrett was UMass Lowell’s best player and she did everything she could to keep the River Hawks in the game, as UMass Lowell finished with 28 turnovers and were just 5-for-22 on clear attempts.

McMahon attributed UMass’ defensive rides – hockey’s equivalent of a forecheck – as the key factor in the game.

“Shooting was really rough today,” McMahon said.

“(We were) 18-for-40, 6-for-20 in the first half alone, so I think that’s going to be a huge focus for us. We’re basically just giving the ball back to the other team. We need to control the possession game. We rode really hard to get the ball back when we missed some of those shots. Their goalie was hands down their best player. She played fantastic,” McMahon said.

Taylor Sokol scored the first goal for UMass Lowell 3:58 seconds into the second half off an assist from Jesse Jay. Sokol’s goal came on a 5-3 advantage in the 12-yard-arc on a free-position attempt. Sokol led the River Hawks with two goals while Emily Wright and Michaela Sanborn each had one apiece.

The Minutewomen held the advantage in both groundballs (30-19) and draw controls (17-7). But despite the dominating performance, McMahon believes that UMass has a lot to improve on.

“You’re always happy to get a win, it wasn’t the prettiest game, but that happens sometimes in the first game,” McMahon said.

“Showing that we scored 18 goals and still didn’t play as good as we can really shows our potential and how far we can go this year,” Troost said. “If we work hard and get our shooting down we can go as far as we want this year.”

Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.

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