The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team entered the Hart Center in Worcester on Saturday having never lost to Holy Cross in its history.

That fact would cease to change, as the Minutewomen scored four unanswered goals to end the first half en route to a 9-6 win over the Crusaders in UMass’ season opener.

Coached by former UMass player Stephanie Pavlick, the Crusaders had the upper hand early in the first half. Hope Zelinger fired a laser through the back of the net for the first goal of the game for the Minutewomen, less than 75 seconds into the contest, but thanks to two Crusader goals from Trish Sutton and Carolyn Smirti, UMass was kept on its heels for most of the half.

“I commend them for stepping it up in the first 15 minutes of the game, but we need to change that,” UMass coach Carrie Bolduc said. “Now that we’ve had a game behind us, I think we’ll see something different from them on Wednesday.”

The absence of tri-captain Kristin St. Hilaire (high ankle sprain) on defense appeared costly early for the Minutewomen. But once the trio of Andrea Valachovic, Tracey Drown and Erica Shapiro found their stride, the Crusaders had a hard time working through the pressure.

“Erica did a nice job for us … we pushed [Tracey] back to defense today, and we were really happy with her [performance] at that position. She created the plays for us on attack and transition,” Bolduc said.

Lindsay Cassell knocked in a pass from Tracey Drown to tie it up at 17:59, but Kerry Daly reclaimed the lead for the Crusaders two minutes later with an unassisted shot into the back of the net.

After several missed scoring opportunities, it was clear the Maroon and White attack’s speed had caught up with the hosts.

The Crusaders were penalized for an illegal pick at 12:24, and the Minutewomen immediately marched down the field. What resulted was another tying goal less than 15 seconds later, again by Cassell and again assisted by Drown. Zelinger tallied her second two minutes later, unassisted, to put the Maroon and White in the lead for good.

The duo of Zelinger and Drown connected twice in a span of 20 seconds in the final two minutes of the half to give the Minutewomen a 6-3 lead going into the break.

“They know what it takes to win, and they showed up today,” Bolduc said of the two. “We need some leaders to step up, and they took on that role that we were looking for them to take.”

All in all, Zelinger had four goals on the day, while Drown tallied four assists.

Cassell and Drown connected for a third time less than 15 seconds into the second half to put UMass up ever further.

Two minutes later, in what was arguably the most beautiful play of the day, Maura McGarrity went coast to coast untouched, and launched a bullet to the back of the net to give the Maroon and White an 8-3 lead, its largest of the day.

The Crusaders mounted a small comeback with three unanswered goals by Jacque Hastings, Katie Britt and Sutton, but the recovery fell short. Kerri Connerty put the nail in the coffin with an unassisted goal with two minutes remaining.

The Minutewomen will be back in action Wednesday, when they return to Garber Field for their home opener against No. 12 Boston University.