Massachusetts Head Coach Patty Shea had been saying the same thing after every Maroon and White loss.
“You can’t look at the end result,” the UMass mentor explained earlier in the season. “Our goal has always been the conference because that is the way of getting into the NCAA tournament.”
However, as the Maroon and White struggled to a 3-7 out-of-conference record to open up the year, it looked like the “process” Shea always talked about was not going as planned.
Quite simply, it looked like Shea was trying to make excuses for why her team was struggling so badly.
Well, after the Minutewomen spent the weekend beating up on conference rivals LaSalle (2-1 on Saturday) and West Chester (2-0 on Sunday), it appears that Shea actually knew what she was talking about all along.
Which shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise, due to the fact that Shea has been named A-10 coach of the year the past two seasons.”Everyone played their part and it was a great weekend,” goalie Ashley Egland said. “We are finally starting to click together again.”
On Friday, the contest got off to an ominous start for the Maroon and White when LaSalle’s Laura Whitman opened up the scoring with 16:29 remaining in the first half.
In the second half, however, UMass finally responded with just over 20 minutes left. Freshman Heather Kenney took a pass from leading scorer Anke Bruemmer on a penalty corner and drilled it into the net for her second tally of the year.
This score ignited an offensive explosion for the freshmen class that would not soon end. By the weekend’s conclusion, the rookies had tallied four goals while their older counterparts had failed to knock a single shot into the back of the cage.
The game-winner against the Explorers came with 9:50 left when Ashley Gilbert provided an unassisted goal. With the loss, LaSalle sunk to a lowly 2-10 (0-1 A-10) on the year while the Minutewomen simultaneously avoided what would have been a catastrophic loss for their postseason chances.
“Ashley [Gilbert] did a fabulous job,” Egland said. “I always tell her to hit the ball against the other team the way she hits it at me in practice and this weekend she did just that.”
Unfortunately for West Chester, Gilbert’s score would only be a sign of things to come. Against the Golden Rams on Sunday, the Turner, Maine native opened up the scoring just over seven minutes in by taking a pass from Stacey Blue and beating the West Chester goaltender.
The rest of the first frame would remain scoreless, but in the second half, Gilbert struck once again by netting her fourth tally of the season. Down 2-0, the Golden Rams would never recover, and fell to 7-6 (1-1 A-10) on the season.
“I think I adjusted well to the grass,” the freshman forward said (both games took place on grass and not turf). “And I feel more confident working with the other forwards. With our forward pressing we are not hesitating as much.”
Gilbert’s play notwithstanding, the rest of the credit for victory must be given to goalie Egland, who continued her stellar play of late by having her best weekend ever as a collegiate athlete.
Against the Explorers, Egland stopped six shots and made sure that LaSalle would not come back to tie the game once Gilbert gave UMass the lead. The next day, she absolutely shut down the Golden Rams, single handedly keeping her team ahead.
In the second frame, West Chester outshot the Maroon and White 23-3, but failed to get a ball by the sophomore netkeeper. By game’s end, Egland had a career-high 15 saves as well as her first collegiate shutout.
“They’re trusting me and I’m trusting them,” the sophomore goalie said about her defense. “It is tough at the beginning of the season because I didn’t know how they played and they didn’t know how I played. Now, we have adjusted to each other.”
UMass next returns to action this Wednesday when it hosts the University of Rhode Island for a 7 p.m. conference showdown.
“We are starting over,” Gilbert said. “We look at it like we are 2-0 and not like we are 5-7. Now everything relates to the conference and we are still the team to beat.”
