Sometime, some game, the tide will turn in favor of UMass. This is the sentiment of Carrie Bolduc, head coach of the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team.
This afternoon, UMass will travel to New York to face Albany where it will attempt to rebound from Sunday’s fifth one-goal loss of the season, which came at the hands of George Washington.
At 2-8, it is virtually impossible for UMass to gain an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. But with a 1-2 record in the Atlantic 10, The Minutewomen are still in contention to make the conference playoffs. If the post-season started today, UMass would be fifth in the conference, one slot shy of the cutoff.
With five games remaining, four inter-divisional, the Maroon and White still has time to overtake Duquesne, Richmond and Temple – three teams sitting one win ahead of UMass at 2-1.
Oddly, the Maroon and White will need outside help to get into the post-season, because three of its remaining games are against teams below UMass in the conference standings. This can be viewed as a double-edged sword. It means UMass cannot overtake the front-runners outright, but also means the Minutewomen have already faced its toughest competition. While the conference leaders battle each other, UMass has the opportunity to slip into the top four with wins against 0-2 (A-10) La Salle and St. Josephs.
Today’s game at Albany doesn’t hold much weight but can help the Minutewoman gain momentum going into Sunday’s all-important game against Temple – a game that could result in UMass overtaking the Owls as the fourth and qualifying team for the Atlantic 10 championships.
Despite all these contingencies, UMass still controls its own fate. Things could easily go from bad to worse with a loss at home against Temple, but going into today’s game Bolduc chooses to concentrate on the positive.
“We’re looking forward to [Albany] to help us prepare for Temple but all games are challenging in spite of records,” Bolduc said.
The Great Dames enter the game at 4-6, with losses coming at the hands of Holy Cross and Duquesne – two teams that constitute UMass’ sole victories.
“It’s good that we’ve already played some of the better teams, and if we had beaten [George Washington] we obviously would have been in a better situation,” Bolduc said. “We have a team understanding that win or loose, Temple will be an important game for us.”
Through the first half of the season, UMass has shown flashes of brilliance. One of its wins came against then undefeated and conference leading Duquesne, and two of its losses were decided in overtime. But for UMass to make a late season surge into the playoffs, it must solidify its goaltending. This became painfully apparent in Friday’s 19-7 loss to Richmond, during which all three goalies saw action, and combined for two saves on 19 shots.
Joey Rubin and Lauren McCarthy combined to allow 15 goals on 15 shots Friday, but also appeared solid while net-minding their respective victories earlier in the season. McCarthy, a red shirt freshman, began the season as the starter but was replaced by Rubin three games into the season. While Bacaicoa appeared shaky in her first action of the year Friday, she returned on Sunday for a solid 11 save performance.
On Tuesday, Bolduc said, “I haven’t named a goalie [to play against] Albany, it all depends on what works best for the team. I was thrilled that [Bacaicoa] made some huge saves in the last couple minutes against GW but I’m feeling confident in all three.”
