Last year, the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team played spoiler to top-seeded Richmond en route to an appearance in the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship game.

The Minutewomen are back at it again this year. However, it will be their turn to go in as the favorite as they face off against No. 4 seed George Washington Friday in Philadelphia, Pa.

Don’t tell UMass coach Alexis Venechanos, though. Despite the team’s seeding, Venechanos and her players still consider themselves the underdog.

‘I think right now, we’re going in a little wide-eyed and we definitely have an underdog mentality,’ Venechanos said. ‘We’re probably going to be a little nervous in the beginning. But with the close games that we’ve had, playing against the national champions [Northwestern] and against Boston University, I think we have a strong foundation.’

UMass comes in with a combination of youth and experience. Some players, like senior co-captain Jackie Rosenzweig, are entering their third conference tournament in four years. Others, like freshman standout goalkeeper Katie Florence, are entering postseason play for the first time.

‘They’re ready for it,’ Rosenzweig said of the freshmen on the team. ‘They’ve progressed a lot since the beginning of the season and they’re ready. They’ve worked really hard and the five upperclassmen have all done a good job of making them feel like they’re up for it.’

Florence, who has started every game of her young career at UMass, has already evolved into one of the top goalies in the conference. She currently boasts a .472 save percentage, which is the third-best mark in the conference, and a 10.77 goals-against average, good for second in the A-10.

The Minutewomen (9-7, 6-1 A-10) enter the tournament after winning the regular season A-10 title for the first time since 2000 and tying for the best conference record in school history. UMass will take on the Colonials (5-11, 4-3 A-10), a team that it has already defeated earlier in the season, 18-5 on April 5.

The Colonials earned their bid into the conference tournament by winning when they had to. George Washington only has one non-conference win under their belt (a 14-5 win against Mt. Saint Mary’s), but none of those other seven losses had any impact on the postseason. And, after starting off their conference slate 3-0, the Colonials went 1-3 to close out the season. That one win, though, was a key victory against Duquesne ‘- the lone A-10 team to beat UMass that gave George Washington the tiebreaker over the Dukes.

The Colonials are led by junior attacker Taylor Donohue while the Minutewomen feature sophomore attacker Jackie Lyons as their main offensive threat. The two are neck-and-neck in production with Lyons holding a slight lead in points per game with 3.56, compared to Donohue’s 3.44.

In the first game between the two teams, the Minutewomen dismantled the Colonials as part of their five-game winning streak earlier in the season. Midfielder Haley Smith scored four goals and Florence made nine saves as George Washington didn’t have an answer for UMass.

The five-game winning streak was the breakout for the Minutewomen after they started the season 3-6. Venechanos says that, since the team took the field at the beginning of the season, it has been steadily improving.

‘We’re constantly trying to improve our consistency and things that will make us look better. Our chemistry is improving, so is our passing defense at midfield and we expect everyone to be clicking this Friday,’ Venechanos said.

Richmond, the team that ended UMass’ postseason run last year, enters this year’s tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 5-2 conference record. The Spiders won the tie-breaker with Saint Joseph‘s (also 5-2) by winning the regular-season finale against the Hawks ‘- the No. 3 seed in the tournament.

In order to face-off against either the Hawks or the Spiders, the Minutewomen will have to avoid the upset against the Colonials, a position that the players know is in stark contrast from a year ago.

‘That’s sort of the story of this year,’ Rosenzweig said. ‘We were the fourth seed last year and we beat the 1-seed and this year we’re the 1-seed and we can’t let them knock us off.

‘We can’t let up. We have to let it all go. People are going to come after us and we have to come right back at them.’

Nick O’Malley can be reached at [email protected].