McGuirk Stadium will be hosting its first game of the 2014 season, and no, it’s not for the football team.

Instead, the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team will be playing its first home game of the season on Wednesday as Holy Cross visits Amherst.

“We love playing at home,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “It’s a great atmosphere. It’s something that we take a lot of pride in is playing at home, defending our home turf.”

The Crusaders (0-1) come into the matchup off a disappointing 8-7 overtime loss in their season opener against Bryant.

Last season, Holy Cross finished 9-10 and made it all the way to the Patriot League Championship finals before losing to Navy. The team is led offensively by captains Sara Hennessey and Laura Ryan, who combined for 71 goals last season.

The Minutewomen (2-0) handily defeated the Crusaders in their matchup a season ago, 20-5. But McMahon said the team isn’t going to take its opponent lightly.

“They’re pretty dynamic in that they have a couple key players that are big threats in terms of being really aggressive to cage,” she said. “Then on defense, they kind of pack it in, which is something that we’re going to have to really make sure we’re keeping their defense moving so that we’ll have opportunities to get in the cage.”

UMass comes into the game still undefeated on the season after winning a close 7-5 matchup against Connecticut on Saturday.

The Minutewomen struggled to gain control of loose balls in that game, as UConn held an advantage in ground balls (22-19) and draw controls (8-6). Kelsey McGovern, UMass’ primary draw specialist, said the team can only learn from that.

“There’s always room for improvement, within myself in putting the ball in certain places, within the team as a whole too, coming up with ground balls and draw controls,” she said.

However, the team stepped up defensively, particularly in the first half, when the Minutewomen cleared the ball eight times and held the Huskies to one goal on seven shots. Goalkeeper Rachel Vallarelli made five of her seven saves on the day.

McGovern gave credit to Vallarelli and midfielder Kate Farnham – who finished with three ground balls, a draw control and four forced turnovers – for stepping up defensively. She said the defense hopes to continue improving as a team.

“I think, moving forward, that continuing to put high pressure on our opponents and work together as a unit and force some bad shots and bad angles for our goalie, Rachel, to make good saves is something I think that we’re striving to do,” McGovern said.

McMahon said one of the big keys to playing against the Crusaders will be looking for different players to step up offensively.

“I think we’re going to really look to our offense to have other people to step up,” she said. “I think Katie (Ferris) has done a pretty good job and she’s always going to get her looks and her shots, but we really need some more people to step up and help support.

“We’re not the type of team that relies on scoring seven goals in a game and winning. That’s not our style. We want to be aggressive.”

The game is set to start Wednesday at 3 p.m.

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