It was déjà vu all over again for the No. 13 Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team on Sunday afternoon.

Two days after blowing a halftime lead against Richmond and ultimately prevailing, the Minutewomen (11-2, 3-0 Atlantic 10) blew a second half lead against George Washington but kept their poise to edge out a 10-9 win at McGuirk Stadium.

“George Washington came out ready to play,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “They gave us a good fight. They had a great game plan against our defense and did a nice job on the draws. We struggled in transition today. We had a lot of turnovers. We had some good opportunities on attack, but I think we played a little too much defense because of all the turnovers and missed draw controls.”

Much like in Friday’s game, UMass struggled to find its offense, but still opened up a sizable 7-3 lead heading into halftime, thanks to timely goals from Ellie Bullitt and Katie Ferris.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Colonials (8-4, 2-1 A-10) scored only eight seconds in to cut the Minutewomen lead to three goals. Their stingy defense held tough, allowing them to ultimately claw all the way back and tie the game at 8-8 with 19:11 seconds left in regulation.

“With (GW) scoring first, the momentum just kind of hits you hard,” Bullitt said. “And they were so amped up, so we definitely had to come back from that.”

Ferris added her second goal of the game and then completed her hat trick in quick fashion, reclaiming a 10-8 lead for UMass with 5:23 left in regulation.

GW made the ending interesting when it cut the deficit to only a goal with 47 seconds left, but was unable to capitalize on a free position shot with seven seconds left as time ran out on its comeback attempt.

Ferris finished the game with six points, tying her for the school’s all-time record in career points with 226. She will have a chance to break the record on Friday at home against Temple.

Patrick Strohecker can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @MDC_Strohecker.