It had been an uphill climb all season long for the Massachusetts field

hockey team.

Since an opening day loss at New Hampshire, the Minutewomen had failed to

pick their record above the .500 mark, and even fell as far as four games

below .500 after an Oct. 10 loss to Providence.

That type of struggling is now over.

This past weekend, UMass swept a pair of games against Atlantic 10 rivals

St. Joseph’s and Temple, winning both by a 1-0 score as it improved its

record to 8-7 (5-0 A-10) and keeping the squad’s five-game win streak

intact.

Even more importantly, Sunday’s senior day win against the Owls guaranteed

the Maroon and White the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament, which

will take place on Nov. 3-4 in Philadelphia.

“We fought hard, did what we were supposed to do and played as a team,”

senior back Anke Bruemmer said. “We have reached one of our goals [winning

the A-10 regular season title] and going undefeated [in conference] is the

next one.”

Against the Hawks on Saturday, the two teams kept each other at bay for all

70 minutes of regulation, as neither squad was able to crack the other’s

defense. Even when the ball was in the circle, however, Lauren Bradley was

there for St. Joe’s, making seven saves, while Ashley Egland patrolled the

cage with four saves for the Minutewomen.

With the weekend complete, Egland now has four straight shutouts.

In overtime against the Hawks, UMass didn’t wait long to strike. A mere

forty seconds in, Heather Kenney weaved her way into the opposing circle and

whacked the ball to the front of the cage. Stacey Blue was positioned

perfectly, and tapped the ball into the net for the win.

The loss dropped St. Joe’s to 8-6 (2-1 A-10) on the year, although it will

most likely have a chance for revenge in the conference tourney.

“We are the dominator in the league,” senior back Jill Fantasia said, whose

thought was finished by Bruemmer.

“People know we are strong so there is more pressure on us,” the native

German continued. “Honestly, everyone just hates us – it is always a battle

and it is going to get worse.”

Sunday’s game against Temple was perfect weather-wise, as the crowd packed

into Richard F. Garber Field to see UMass seniors Kaitlyn Byron, Lindsay

Abbott, Kerry Ann Jaggassar, Bruemmer and Fantasia play the second-to-last

games of their careers at home.

It was Jaggassar’s first game back since an injury that took place on

September 5, although the senior only played a few minutes before watching

the rest of the contest from the sidelines.

Still, it meant that Jaggassar was well on her way to being ready for the

Atlantic 10 tournament, and would add another dimension to a defense that

has already begun to peak.

“It felt great [to play],” Jaggassar said. “At the beginning [of the year]

it was tough [to sit out] because we were struggling, but it has given me a

different perspective on the game. I have learned a lot more from the

sidelines.”

Against the Owls, the Minutewomen struck fairly quickly, when Erika Whiston

picked up an unassisted score at the 16:28 mark. However, neither team would

notch a tally for the rest of the game despite each having quality chances.

Early in the second half, a Bruemmer goal off a penalty corner was

nullified because the ball was not stopped dead before being flipped back

into the circle, although it was questionable whether or not the ball had

actually been stopped. Temple had an even more controversial goal taken back

with less than three minutes remaining when the ball got caught in a

player’s skirt before being fired into the goal.

At first, it looked like the score would count, but after a lengthy

conference by the two officials, they took back the goal and signaled for a

penalty corner. The Owls didn’t convert on the penalty corner and the

remaining 2:21 ran off the clock to give the Maroon and White the victory.

“It was two good wins,” UMass Head Coach Patty Shea said. “They were low

scoring games, but for the most part, we controlled both games.”

The Minutewomen have only one more conference game, Richmond, to go, as

well as a pair of out-of-conference contests against Dartmouth and Virginia

Commonwealth, before heading down to Philly for the conference tournament.

“Our goal is to win the A-10 conference and go undefeated in conference,”

Byron said. “We want to make another NCAA tournament appearance, and in the

back of our mind is the Final Four.”