The No. 15 Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team continued its winning ways Sunday afternoon with a convincing 23-10 win at George Washington.
The Minutewomen improved to 11-1 and 2-0 in the Atlantic 10, while the Colonials fell to 7-4,and 1-1 in the conference.
Katie Ferris and Nina Sarcona led UMass in scoring with four goals apiece. Ferris also picked up two assists for a six-point performance. Dayna Defliese also had an impressive day scoring, picking up a hat trick of her own.
Sam Rush, Cori Murray, Jesse O’Donnell and Lauren Terracciano all scored two goals, while Tanner Guarino, Paige Morelli, Ellie Bullitt and Melissa Carelli scored one apiece.
The leading goal scorer for GW was Addi Bolin, who came off the bench to score three times. Sarah Phillips, Allie Rash and Megan Seidman all scored two goals and Terasa Vassallo scored one for the Colonials.
The Minutewomen never trailed in the game and were up by as many as 14 goals near the end of the tilt.
UMass had an 11-6 lead going into the second half, but it quickly grew to 11 with six straight goals in under 10 minutes of play before GW scored its first goal of the second half.
The Minutewomen overwhelmed the Colonials with its relentless scoring attack. UMass outshot GW, 33-19, over the course of the game.
The Minutewomen were led by Sarcona (6) on draw controls and Rachel Vallarelli (3) on groundballs.
UMass won the turnover margin by four, picked up two more groundballs than the Colonials and won seven more draw controls.
Katie Florence spent only 8:45 in goal, giving up three goals and no saves, before she was given the rest of the day off due to the Minutewomen’s already comfortable lead. Vallarelli got her chance in goal for the remainder of the game and turned in a solid performance, making six saves and allowing seven goals.
Guarino nets OT-winner
In a rematch of last year’s Atlantic 10 championship game, the Minutewomen began this year’s A-10 season with a thrilling double overtime win at Richmond Friday afternoon.
Ferris and O’Donnell led UMass in scoring, with five goals apiece, while Ferris also added on two assists for her seven-point performance. Sarcona, Terracciano, Guarino, Danielle Pelletier and Rush all added a single goal of their own.
Richmond had three players score multiple goals, including a five-goal performance by Sam Stevenson. Caitlin Fifield (3) and Mary Flowers (2) were the other two Spiders with multi-goal games.
The game was close throughout, as the teams were never separated by more than three goals.
UMass went up by two on an unassisted goal by O’Donnell with 7:02 left to play in the second half. One minute later, Richmond made it a one-goal game again on Stevenson’s fourth goal of the game.
The two remained separated by a single goal until Stevenson scored her fifth goal of the afternoon with only 38 seconds left in the second half, which sent the game into overtime
The Minutewomen scored the first goal of the first overtime after they gained control of the opening draw control. O’Donnell was the goal-scorer on an unassisted goal putting UMass up 14-13 with only 28 seconds left in the first overtime.
In dramatic fashion, however, the Spiders tied the game up yet again with only one second left in the first overtime on a Hayley Ross goal, which sent the game into double overtime.
The Minutewomen won the opening draw control again in the double overtime period, and this time Guarino scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 21 seconds left in the second overtime.
The two played a fairly clean game as UMass committed an unusually low 14 fouls, while Richmond committed 10. Turnovers were also low, with the Minutewomen coughing up nine and the Spiders 11.
UMass goalkeeper Katie Florence played all 66 minutes of game time, coming up big with 11 saves for the Minutewomen.
Ali Houlis anchored the UMass defense, picking up five groundballs. Sarcona and Guarino each controlled three draw controls apiece to lead the Minutewomen.
Cameron McDonough can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_McDonough.
