It took a modest 12 games before the Massachusetts women’s soccer team earned a victory in regulation.

After enduring eight overtime games, including six double-overtime matches, in its first 11 games, UMass coach Ed Matz put it best with his postgame proclamation following the 2-1 win over Saint Joseph’s on Sunday: “Thank god.”

Junior Jackie Bruno responded late in the game with a goal in the 87th minute coming off a corner kick that deflected off a Hawks’ defender.

Bruno’s goal was her second in the past two games. She now leads the Minutewomen with four goals for the season. According to freshmen goalkeeper Cassidy Babin, Bruno’s goal came as no surprise, as the forward has proven that she can spark the offense at any moment.

“I saw (Bruno) setting up for the set piece and thought, ‘Oh man, this is going to be a good set piece,’” Babin said.

Sunday marked UMass’ second Atlantic-10 matchup in three days, following its 1-1 double overtime tie on Friday. With the win, the Minutewomen improved to 3-5-4 and 1-0-1 in conference play.

“It’s one of the best ways to start off,” Babin said. “We still have a lot of work to do, we need to keep showing up in matches, but it was a great way to start off our conference play.”

Although UMass and Saint Joseph’s each had just one day separating their previous games, both teams came out firing on offense and recorded a goal apiece in the 11th minute.

The Hawks started the scoring when sophomore midfielder Meghan Dipippa headed in a corner cross from junior forward Olivia McEachern to give the Hawks the early lead.

The Minutewomen responded 38 seconds later as junior Georgia Gibson netted a goal with an assist from sophomore Daniela Alvarez off of a free kick.

UMass held an advantage in both shots (13-10) and corner kicks (5-1) in the match as Julia Weithofer and Natalie Perussault each recorded three shots to lead the Minutewomen.

Matz said that he was excited with his team’s ability to catch a break on offense after a flurry of shots in order to avoid another overtime game in the process.

“Obviously it felt great,” Matz said. “I felt like we’ve been working and building up to this. We caught a little bit of a break on the goal but it was a great strike by (Bruno).”

Babin started her fourth game in goal for UMass on Sunday and notched six saves, including four in the second half to match her season high. Babin seemed unfazed, despite an abundance of late scoring opportunities coming from Saint Joseph’s.

“I was feeling good, it kept me in tune,” Babin said. “We were getting a lot of chances and we were making big stops on defense. I think it kind of pumped us up, the stops on defense.”

The Minutewomen got contributions from a large portion of their roster on Sunday, using eight players off the bench.

“We used a lot of people in the first half to try and keep ourselves fresh, so it’s good when you can get that many people involved and that many people are contributing to an A-10 win,” Matz said.

UMass will have six days until its next A-10 matchup, when it travels to George Washington. Matz said the Minutewomen are looking forward to another high-paced matchup.

“The game Saturday is on turf and we really like turf,” Matz said. “We like the speed of play and to control the speed of play so were just going to continue with this baby step forward that we took today. I think it was good for the girls psychologically and for our bodies to get a win in regulation.”

Frank Corona can be reached at [email protected].