There would be no déjà vu for the Massachusetts field hockey team Saturday.
After besting Syracuse on Oct. 11 to start a 10-game winning-streak, the No. 16 Minutewomen team fell 4-2 to the No. 5 Orange (18-2, 6-0 Big East) in the first round of the NCAA tournament Saturday evening at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex, coming up short in its push for 11 straight victories.
Despite two goals by senior defender Thando Zono, along with 14 saves by freshman goalkeeper Sam Carlino, UMass (15-9, 6-1 Atlantic 10) made an early exit in the program’s 23rd trip to the Big Dance.
“I don’t think we came out and played our best in the first half,” Tagliente said. “We came out a little tentative and we paid the price for it early on. We kind of dug ourselves a hole and tried to fix everything quickly rather than let the game come to us.”
Syracuse started the scoring in the 8th minute when sophomore forward Lauren Brooks beat Carlino glove side for an unassisted tally.
Eight minutes later, senior forward Kelsey Millman added her 13th goal of the year. She hit the ball into the left corner of the cage off a pass from Leonie Geyer to put the Orange up 2-0 early..
Sophomore midfielder Jordan Page had the final goal of the first half when she scored on a rebound after Carlino made the initial save on the scoring attempt at the 22-minute mark.
Only nine minutes after halftime, sophomore midfielder Stephanie Hussey put Syracuse up by four, in identical fashion to Page, finishing an unassisted rebound off a Carlino save.
Zono got UMass on the board with six minutes to play in regulation. Lauren Allymohamed fed a penalty corner to Zono, who knocked it off Orange goalkeeper Leann Stiver’s foot and into the cage.
The tide shifted in the Minutewomen’s favor three minutes later when Zono cut the deficit in half on a penalty stroke, awarded after Syracuse committed a foul in the circle.
However, it was too little, too late as the Orange held on for the win, handing UMass its first loss in 11 games and eliminating the Minutewomen from the tournament in their first appearance in the Tagliente era.
Tagliente was proud of her team’s performance in the second half despite her team’s lackluster start.
“At halftime, we talked about playing our game, building attack and trying to get back in the game one goal at a time,” she said. “The mentality shifted after the first goal, but it just took too long. You hate to see that in the last game, but I can’t fault these guys for that because for 23 games, they showed up every day and played 70 minutes.
“I think they got over excited and over amped for this game, but they poured their heart and souls into it. Sometimes you have those moments, you hope they don’t come at a time like this, but they did today. We’ll get better [from] it.”
Despite graduating seven seniors, Tagliente said the mix of upper and lowerclassmen this season will help her team next year.
“Unfortunately we have to graduate seven great seniors,” Tagliente said. “But I think our defense is a lot more structured and sound than it’s been. On the attacking end, we’re finally putting shots in the goal, our goal production is significantly higher (than last year) and I really do think that’s a collective effort.”
UMass, led in scoring by Zono and senior midfielder Kim Young with 33 points each, finished the season with 15 wins. It was the 15th time since 1975 that the Minutewomen have accomplished that feat.
Peter Cappiello can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Cappiello.
