Currently riding a three-game losing streak, the Massachusetts field hockey team has been struggling as of late.

The Minutewomen have dropped three in a row to ranked opponents No. 20 Northeastern, defending national champion No. 3 Maryland and No. 17 Boston University last Friday night.

“We haven’t been executing the way we are supposed to” said UMass coach Carla Tagliente. “Our players have been playing hard but we have been competing in halves instead of playing complete games.”

In a loss against Northeastern on Sept. 16, UMass found itself with a 1-0 first half lead thanks to a Renee Suter tip-in that was assisted by Kate Heineman. But the real story of the half was the efforts by goalie Alesha Widdall in net, who collected three saves at the expense of All-American forward Crystal Poland.

“She’s been doing a great job of making first saves,” said Tagliente.

But despite her efforts, Widdall managed to let one ball slip by her during the game, which consequently sent the match into overtime, giving the Huskies a shot for a comeback win. Ultimately, the Minutewomen failed to keep up with the pace of their opponents and dropped the first of their three game losing streak in overtime.

The following game against the defending national champions was not as competitive as the former contest. After falling into an early 2-0 hole, the Minutewomen showed signs of persistence by scoring a goal at the end of the first half and ending the half down 2-1.

“It’s perfect, it’s always a relief when you score,” said Heineman on her first goal of the season. “It’s always great to contribute to your team’s success.”

Even through the persistence, UMass failed to overcome its 2-1 deficit in the second half.  The team found it difficult to compete against Maryland’s defense, as they only were capable of firing one shot on goal the entire remainder of the game. Their mistakes were capitalized on by Terrapin defender Ali McEvoy and forward Maxine Fluharty as they each found the back of the net once in the second half.

Not playing a complete game of hockey seemed to be the trending topic through this recent stretch of losses for the Minutewomen.

“We stopped competing after the first half,” said Tagliente.

Likewise, against BU, UMass had trouble coming up with offense in the second half. They held the Terriers to one goal in the first half and just three on the game, but couldn’t manage to score at all.

“We need to do some soul searching,” said Tagliente. “This is the first game where I didn’t see improvement,”

“We’ve been doing a great job making first saves,” added Tagliente “But we need to be able to create second and third chances for ourselves like other teams have been doing against us.”

The Minutewomen intend on learning from their mistakes as they will square off against No. 4 Connecticut Wednesday night. The Huskies are coming off a 4-0 win against Providence and will certainly prove a challenge for the stagnant Minutewomen offense.

“We’re going to have to play an entire game if we look to compete with ranked opponents,” said Tagliente. “Playing against ranked opponents will help prepare us for our A-10 schedule.”

The Huskies’ win streak was halted by Boston College on Sept. 18, giving them their first and only loss this season.

De’Shawn Townsend can be reached at [email protected].