One of the toughest schedules in the country is taking its toll on the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team. The No.11 Yale Bulldogs beat the Minutewomen 10-3, yesterday at McGuirk Stadium.

UMass (1-5) is now on a five-game losing streak since winning its home opener against Holy Cross. With the exception of the 9-8 loss against No.13 Dartmouth, every loss has been by at least seven goals.

UMass coach Alexis Venechanos knows that her team has the capability to be more of an offensive threat, but first the team needs to generate more chemistry.

“We can’t win games [only] scoring three goals,” Venechanos said. [The team needs to work on] just the little stuff right now. [We had] a couple of bad passes on the clears and that’s when Yale took advantage. They’re a smart team and they have leaders on the offensive and defensive ends. They were the better team today.”

The Minutewomen converted 4-of-7 clears on the day, while Yale converted 10-of-12. The Bulldogs played a very physical game (24 fouls) and gave UMass five free-position shots, only one of which turned into a goal.

The Minutewomen couldn’t capitalize on groundballs, either. Yale caused 12 turnovers, gaining the groundball each time. The Bulldogs also grabbed two groundballs on UMass turnovers caused by careless passing on the part of the Minutewomen.

Yale is a physical, defensive team and the fact that it has three players with seven or more goals shows how well-rounded the Bulldogs are.

Even though Yale has some pure-scorers, the Bulldogs took advantage of the inexperience of UMass freshman goalkeeper Colleen Speth. However, Speth made four saves and she is gaining the trust of her teammates.

“I’ve been really impressed with her leadership in there, she’s definitely a presence,” Venechanos said. “The women definitely like playing in front of her and she’s keeping us in games right now, which is what we’re asking her to do.”

Three Yale players had multi-goals games. The same three players had two assists each, as well. Seven players total found the back of the net for Yale. Senior midfielder Lauren Taylor and senior attack Meredith Callahan padded their team lead in points – now at 15 – with two goals and two assists each on the day.

Redshirt junior midfielder Kaytlin McCormick notched the first goal of the day early in the first half, padding her team lead in goals to 13. The Minutewomen then took their time with offensive possessions for the rest of the half, a tactic used by Venechanos to cut down on the errant shots that have been plaguing the Maroon and White.

Yale, however, is also a patient team and waited for its shots, eventually leading to a three-goal run by the Bulldogs to end the first half with a score of 4-1. Yale started the second half how it ended the first, scoring three unanswered goals as a result of poor passing by UMass.

Junior attack Julie Pasquantonio ended the run by firing a shot to the left side of Bulldog goalkeeper Ellen Cameron, who had eight saves on the day.

However again, after a goal by the Maroon and White, Yale went on another run, only this time it was four unanswered goals.

After a Bulldog timeout, Yale coach Laura Field pulled Cameron in favor of freshman Katie Janian.

Sophomore attack/midfielder Jillian Liposky put together the final scoring play for the Minutewomen, scoring the first goal of her collegiate career. The score was on the only successful free-position shot conversion of the day.

The only other bright spot for UMass was in draw controls. The Minutewomen edged out the Bulldogs in draw controls 8-7.

As if it’s schedule hasn’t been hard enough already, the Maroon and White will next f ace No.1 Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., on March 16 at 1 p.m.

Mike Gillmeister can be reached at [email protected]