In a lacrosse game where a team scores 14 goals, the defensive performance can often get overlooked.
But without a strong day from the defense, the No. 9 Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team might not have come out with its 14-6 victory over Southern California on Saturday.
Although the Trojans (3-4) had possession of the ball for most of the first half, the Minutewomen (9-0) held them to just three goals in the first frame behind a six-save performance from goaltender Rachel Vallarelli and went into halftime with a 6-3 lead.
“Rachel Vallarelli really stepped up big time and made a lot of great saves for us,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “So it really could have been a much closer game had she not been in between the pipes for us.”
Vallarelli finished the game with eight saves to earn her ninth win in net. The UMass defense stepped up as a whole, causing 10 turnovers and succeeding on all 13 of its clear attempts.
“I thought not only our low defenders but our midfielders were doing a great job of really limiting their opportunities and forcing them into some rushed shots,” McMahon said.
The game was close for much of the first half, as the Minutewomen never led by more than two goals. But when Amy Tiernan scored with just three seconds left in the first half and Sam Rush followed up by scoring just ten seconds into the second half to give UMass a four-goal lead, the momentum swung fully in the Minutewomen’s favor.
“From there, we were really maintaining some good long possessions on offense, not even giving them an opportunity to score,” McMahon said.
After Rush’s goal, UMass outscored USC 7-3 for the rest of the game, going on runs of three and four consecutive goals in the process. Rush led the Minutewomen with four goals.
“I think I played well,” Rush said. “I think a lot of people set me up, giving me a lot of balls in the middle and I got a lot of opportunities and I was lucky and able to finish on a few of them.”
UMass also got multi-goal performances from Katie Ferris, Courtney McGrath and Melissa Carelli, while Erika Eipp added a goal and two assists.
McMahon also credited the team’s turnaround in the second half to its ability to pick up loose balls. After the Trojans held a 10-9 advantage on ground balls in the first half, the Minutewomen turned things around and had an 8-5 advantage in the second half.
“It came down to us winning either the draw controls or the 50-50 ground balls and that gave us more opportunities to go to goal,” she said.
UMass will next host No. 7 Northwestern Tuesday night at 7 p.m. McMahon said it could be the team’s toughest game yet.
“(Saturday) we had some ups and downs throughout the game, and we can’t do that against a great team like Northwestern,” she said. “We have to play a full 60 minutes and we have to really play our best game of the season if we’re going to give ourselves even an opportunity to win.”
Jesse Mayfield-Sheehan can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jgms88.
