Brian Tedder, Collegian Staff

Temple consistently controlled both the ball and the game’s tempo during yesterday’s 10-3 win over the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team in the Atlantic 10 Championship.

The Minutewomen may have just been playing aggressive. But in the end, the amount of fouls called against UMass cost it both possession and the A-10 Championship.

“We play pretty aggressive,” UMass coach Alexis Venechanos said. “You are always going to get a lot of whistles, but you’ve got to capitalize and be cool. You can’t really control the referees.”

Each foul called against UMass gave Temple control of the ball, starting them with an advantage. This helped the Owls dominate play.

In the first half, the Minutewomen were called for 14 fouls to the Owls’s five. By the end of the game UMass racked up 23 more fouls for a season-high 37. On average, the Minutewomen got 21 fouls a game, the second highest in the A-10 behind Saint Bonaventure.

Jackie Rosenzweig led the Minutewomen in the number of fouls during the game with six, followed closely behind was Kathleen Typadis with five and Jeannette Villapiano and Stephanie Hopkins each had four.

Due to many fouls by the Minutewomen, Temple had seven free-position shots. The Owls scored on five of them. The Minutewomen were unsuccessful on their three free-position shots, which usually lead to easy goals for the Minutewomen. Free-position shots are one of the best advantages during a game. If the Minutewomen didn’t give the Owls five goals off of free-position shots it would have been a much closer game.

UMass was called for four yellow cards; Temple was only called for three.

Melynda Zwick, Kaytlin McCormick, Rosenzweig and Hopkins all received yellow cards during the second half of the game. Getting a yellow card during the game puts the receiving player on the bench for two minutes. Not having two of the Minutewomen’s leading scorers and a top defender missing two minutes of the game was a major disadvantage for them.

The Minutewomen struggled throughout the game to gain consistent control of the ball; their frustrations seemed to be reflected in the fouls that were called on them. The Owls’s ability to keep controlling play even with the fouls that were called is why they came away with a win.

Melissa Turtinen can be reached at [email protected].