In what UMass coach Justine Sowry called one of the biggest wins of her UMass career, the Minutewomen beat the previously undefeated Huskies, a feat that took 10 years to accomplish.
“It’s a huge win for the program, not just for the team that played out here, it’s for the players before this team,” Sowry said. “UConn has definitely had the better of us for all this time, but we’ve really worked hard to get to this point to be able to compete. Finally the monkey’s off our back and hopefully it will give us confidence to move forward in the season.”
UMass (3-3) came into Saturday’s game against UConn (3-1) having lost 10 straight matchups with the Huskies. Its last win against its foes from Storrs came Sept. 30, 2000, when it won, 2-1, in Amherst.
“We thought we’d throw something different at them today, just throw something that they’ve never seen before,” Sowry said. “So we changed up our press and we executed it, and it was just incredible. Everybody on the field contributed today. I was just thrilled to bits.”
After a week of practice devoted to trying to strengthen the communication of the young forward line, a pair of freshmen teamed up to give the Minutewomen the winning goal with 14 minutes, 26 seconds left in the first half.
UMass freshman Mika Black put a pass in front of the goal that freshman Lindsay Bowman knocked out of the air and into the top of the goal. Both rookies collected their first career points on the deciding play of the game.
“I thought that the freshmen played an outstanding game [against UConn],” Sowry said. “Everybody has to contribute and be on the same page. It’s not about whether a decision is right or wrong, it’s just making a decision, and communicating it and going with confidence. We definitely worked hard this week.”
In each of the last four games prior to the UConn game, the Minutewomen faced at least a one-goal deficit which they needed to overcome. Prior to Saturday’s game, Sowry sought to end that streak using an unorthodox approach.
Just before the Minutewomen went onto the field, Sowry called the press box to ask them to put a goal on the scoreboard for the Huskies. Before the game had even started, UMass was behind, 1-0.
“If that’s what it took then it worked and we came out really hard and strong and certainly took it to them,” Sowry said. “We disrupted their flow for the first time since I’ve been at UMass. I’m just really proud of the efforts of the team.”
UMass fell behind again Sunday, needing to overcome a 2-0 deficit to Yale with under 30 minutes left in the game. Senior captain Katie Kelly, off an assist from Makaela Potts, cut the deficit to one in the 54th minute before Bowman scored her second goal in as many games to tie the game with six minutes left.
In overtime, after an attempted shot by Yale, senior defender Jaime Bourazeris found Kelly on a long pass, leading to a breakaway goal, and a 3-2 UMass win.
“Bourazeris had the poise to see an open lane to Kelly and pretty much made a 30-yard bullet pass straight to [Kelly’s] stick,” Sowry said. “It was a breakaway. Kelly drew the goalkeeper and low-footed her and just pushed the ball past the goalkeeper’s right foot. Very calm, composed, and poised on the ball by Katie and it was a great pass by [Bourazeris].”
Still, Sowry saw a very tired team on the field that just one day after upsetting UConn, had to find the willpower to come back against Yale.
“It was just finding a way to play together to get the job done,” Sowry said. “It was not pretty. People were tired, mentally and physically. But we were going to do it together. It was a fabulous effort to come through on a tough day. To come back from a two-goal deficit certainly shows a great deal about our character and we certainly showed a lot of character this weekend.”
Pete Vasquez can be reached at [email protected].
