After having its season-high three-game winning streak snapped in a tough double-overtime loss on Saturday, the Massachusetts women’s soccer team now shifts its focus to Friday, when it takes on Dayton.
Coming off one of its toughest losses of the season – in which the Minutewomen (5-6-1, 1-1 Atlantic 10) gave up a “self-developed” 106th minute game-winning goal to Virginia Commonwealth – coach Ed Matz’s squad is trying to put that game behind them.
“(We’re) moving forward,” Matz said.
But what looms ahead for UMass is not much easier.
The Flyers come into Amherst riding a four-game winning streak, having won five of their last six games and are currently first in the A-10 standings.
“(Dayton is) just a very talented team, they’re just so explosive,” Matz said. “Since I’ve been at UMass, we’ve done a good job against Dayton for portions of the match, but they’ve been able to break the game right open.”
Dating back to the 2010 season, the Flyers have held a considerable advantage over the Minutewomen, winning all four matchups and outscoring UMass by an 18-2 margin.
In the most recent battle in the first round of the A-10 Tournament last season, Dayton scored three second-half goals to pull away from the Minutewomen for a 4-1 victory, ending UMass’ season. Prior to that game, the Flyers easily took care of the Minutewomen at Rudd Field, 4-0, earlier in the season.
Acknowledging that Dayton has his team’s number over the past couple of seasons, Matz understands the difficulty of slowing down its high-powered offense.
“They’re a team that you can defend well a majority of the game, but you give their talented kids a second to shoot, and they capitalize on it,” he said. “And (they) do it quickly, getting two or three goals in a couple minutes span.”
Ashley Campbell and Juliana Libertin are two of the top contributors for the Flyers’ offense, which ranks No. 1 in the A-10 with 75 points and 26 goals.
Campbell comes into Friday’s matchup leading the conference with 11 goals, while Libertin’s nine assists also top conference ranks.
Slowing down these two key players is a major part of UMass’ gameplan heading into the match.
“They’re tremendously talented players,” Matz said of Campbell and Libertin. “We also know that, whoever we’re asking to cover those players are going to need help with certain parts of the game.
“It’s a matter of hoping our 1 v. 1 defending is good, and hope our help defense is there too and hope that, if that fails, Danielle (Kriscenski) is in the right position.”
While the Minutewomen’s defense has their work cut out for them, their offensive performance may be the “X-factor” in determining the outcome of Friday’s game.
After being held scoreless on Saturday, offense was the major focus in UMass’ practices this week.
“Your offense has to keep the ball away from Dayton,” Matz said. “Our focus every single practice has been do whatever it takes to score a goal. We’re trying to work on getting people in the proper position.
“That’s been on our motto this week: do whatever it takes.”
Matz’s team will have to slow down a Flyers squad that has played its best soccer of the season as of late.
While getting a win versus any conference team is important for the Minutewomen, a win on Friday would mean more than just another “W” in the win column, Matz said.
“They know this weekend is going to be pretty tough, our seniors have been around for them,” Matz said. “They are focused on beating Dayton before they leave UMass.” Kickoff for Friday’s game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Rudd Field.
Joey Saade can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Jsaade1225.
