The No. 13 Massachusetts field hockey team is getting a boost on offense with the return of freshman midfielder Izzie Delario.

“It’s a huge help getting her back. She obviously generates quite a bit of our attack,” UMass coach Carla Tagliente said. “I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen her turning up in the stat columns that much, but what she brings on the field, in terms of what she creates on attack, has really been a huge help for us.”

Delario was second on the team in goals scored (2) and shots taken (13) after the first five games when she suffered a knee injury, causing her to miss the team’s next six games.

She returned to the lineup last Wednesday against Northeastern, where she played off the bench, and then made her return to the starting lineup on Sunday against Boston University. Since her return, Delario has tallied two shots and made an assist on a penalty corner goal against the Terriers.

“We’re just kind of monitoring her minutes right now,” Tagliente said. “She’s slowly coming back from her injury. I wouldn’t say she’s 100 percent just yet, but she’s pretty close to being there and we just need to kind of manage her transition back onto the field a little bit.”

Tagliente expects Delario to help in drawing penalty corners, an area that the team has struggled with this season. During the first five games in which Delario played, the Minutewomen drew 41 penalty corners, averaging 8.2 per game, while during the six games played in her absence, the team drew only 38, averaging 6.33 penalty corners per game.

Tagliente said that the team is already seeing a positive impact from her return.

“For her not playing at 100 percent, she’s still doing quite well and contributing quite a bit,” Tagliente said. “Statistically, I think our penalty corners and our shots on goal, shots in circle have probably increased significantly.

“It’s not all a direct result of her, but she does have a lot of speed with the ball, she does draw a lot of attention by the other team’s defense,” she said, adding that Delario’s return to the lineup will balance the team “a little bit more” by giving the team more speed, skill and production up front.

Delario said it feels great to be back on the field, and now she’s just trying to improve with the team.

“Just really taking it one day at a time, one game at a time, just really working hard in practice,” Delario said. “Each day we’re growing stronger and stronger.”

Jesse Mayfield-Sheehan can be reached at [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter @jgms88.