Offense wins games and defense wins championships. That’s how the adage goes. But offense and defense together, that is the mark of a good team. Something the Massachusetts women’s soccer team proved it is this weekend.
The Minutewomen won a pair of games, knocking off St. Bonaventure 5-0 on Friday afternoon before disposing of Duquesne 7-0 yesterday. Senior midfielder Kat Machamer gave a five-star performance in both matches, tallying three assists against the Bonnies before netting her first career hat trick Sunday against Duquesne.
“It was really exciting [to get the hat trick,] but I think it was more exciting to see how well the team played today,” said Machamer following Sunday’s win. “It was a total team effort and I think everybody played well.”
“This system suits her system of play,” said UMass coach Jim Rudy of his senior midfielder. “She plays like an older woman, she doesn’t play like a kid.”
The weekend did not get off to a great start for UMass (8-2, 5-0 Atlantic 10) as it lost starting midfielder Martha Conover less than three minutes into Friday’s match. A clash of heads left Conover with a sizeable gash in the back of her head from which she did not return. However, the wound had healed enough by Sunday to allow her to play.
One person who did not play on Sunday was sophomore striker Erin Lilly. Lilly, who had notched three assists on Friday, giving her eight on the season, partially dislocated her shoulder when she went down awkwardly during training on Saturday.
The unavailability of these two players gave some others off the UMass bench a chance to step up, a chance that was not passed up by junior Andrea Trujillo or sophomores Rainey Meisel and Janelle Khouri. All three came into the weekend without a point on the season but each played key roles in the two conference victories. The triumvirate combined for three goals and five assists in the two matches and their performances went miles to solidifying their role within the team.
“It’s nice to know that the kids who are playing [off the bench] are doing real things, they’re not just occupying space,” said Rudy. “That’s the good part about getting people on, giving them their opportunity and if you get the opportunity, you do something with it.”
Trujillo scored her first-ever collegiate goal in the 81st minute against St. Bonaventure, and added an assist on Sunday on the Maroon and White’s seventh and final goal against the Dukes, a tally by Meisel, her second in as many games. Meisel, a sophomore walk-on from Eugene, Ore., notched her first-ever point at UMass when she assisted on Trujillo’s goal and then added her first goal less than five minutes later on Friday.
But the star of the bench was undoubtedly Khouri. After seeing little playing time for most of the early part of the season, Khouri filled in admirably for the injured Conover in the center of the UMass midfield against SBU and then came off the bench to contribute three assists against Duquense on Sunday.
“When you get more time, then you can get into the game and start creating more,” Khouri said.
“The key thing here is whether she is playing early or late she is giving some quality work,” Rudy said. “Some of that stuff was just really good.”
As well as these three played, they were still overshadowed by the play of Machamer. The senior, who netted her first goal of the season last weekend against Fordham, picked up three more to give her four on the season and eight for her career. She scored the game-winner just two and a half minutes into the game on Sunday when she side-footed a Brooke Bartlett cross past Duquesne goalie Kristin Scharphorn to give the Minutewomen a 1-0 lead.
Bartlett and Machamer hooked up again less than four minutes into the second half when Bartlett, who had a goal and three assists over the weekend, was again freed down the right flank by defender Alexi Rudd. Bartlett beat her defender to the end line and whipped in a cross, only for Scharphorn to palm it away, but only as far as Machamer who headed the rebound into the open night to make the score 3-0.
“The best part about that is that we are putting into practice during games what we train at, and there is not a better feeling for a coach,” Rudy said of his squad and the way they have bought into his attacking system.
Machamer finished off the hat trick in the 62nd minute when she took a feed from freshman Carly Turman and fired a shot into the right side netting for a 5-0 lead.
With Machamer, Bartlett and company providing more than enough offense, neither of the UMass keepers was put under too much pressure. Senior Julie Podhrasky was called on to make just two saves Friday against the Bonnies while sophomore understudy Kelly Nigh also made just a pair of saves against Duquesne for her second shutout of the season. The Minutewomen have now recorded three consecutive shutouts and have not allowed a goal in more than 330 minutes.
The Minutewomen will look to get another pair of similar performances when they return to action this weekend against St. Joseph’s and Temple in Philadelphia. UMass will be looking to maintain its perfect league record and remain in the pole position for its first A-10 regular season title since 1996.
