The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team has had no shortage of success with coach Angela McMahon at the helm. Since arriving in Amherst in 2011, she’s led the Minutewomen to 72 victories, four consecutive Atlantic 10 titles and its first win in the NCAA tournament in 29 years in 2013.

But with the graduation of seven key members following last season, 2015 offers a new challenge for the Minutewomen.

UMass enters the season striving for its fifth straight conference championship without a 2014 senior class that accounted for nearly 66 percent of last year’s goal production.

Despite this loss of talent, McMahon said that the annual expectation to win the A-10 and advance to the NCAA tournament is still intact.

“I’m obviously proud of what we did last year but we want to do better,” McMahon said. “Every year, you want to be that team that continues the tradition and continues to do well.”

But looking past the 2015 season, McMahon hopes to translate her collegiate accomplishments into international success in her new role as head coach of the inaugural Italian national team.

After being appointed by the Italian Lacrosse Association (FIGL) on June 18, 2014, McMahon and the Italian team will begin international competition in August at the European Championship, hosted by the Czech Republic. The tournament will serve as preparation for the 2017 World Cup in Guildford, England, which McMahon called “the highest competition for lacrosse.”

McMahon said that she feels privileged to lead the first-ever Italian team and is excited for the opportunity to help further develop lacrosse in the nation.

“It was really exciting and was a huge honor,” McMahon said. “I think being involved in international lacrosse is something that is obviously a huge step professionally. It feels good to help grow the game at an international level and I think right now that’s what the sport needs.”

Simply reaching out

According to McMahon, her interest in pursuing the Italian coaching position stemmed from research done by her husband, Justin Serpone, who is the head coach for the men’s soccer team at Amherst College.

She said that Serpone was exploring different countries that didn’t play lacrosse at a national level and was surprised to learn that Italy was on the list.

“He just reached out to a couple of organizers that he found online and said, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about forming a women’s team?’” McMahon said. “They said they were actually in the process of looking at it and that they would keep him posted.

“Then it continued to go back and forth and it just ended up working out.”

The prospects of leading an Italian team particularly interested McMahon and Serpone due to their respective Italian heritages. Serpone, who has 100 percent Italian ancestry, will be an assistant coach on McMahon’s staff.

“It’s a great, diverse place,” Serpone said. “Any time you can help develop something so close to your roots, it’s a great opportunity.”

Lacrosse isn’t currently one of the 45 nationally recognized sports in Italy, according to the requirements set by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). However, McMahon said that her early interactions with the FIGL have been encouraging in pursuing these standards.

“They’re extremely welcoming and so excited and eager to learn about the sport and help it grow within their country,” McMahon said. “That’s sort of our ultimate mission in all of this, to help it grow in the country so then they can get more club teams in all the different areas and help it become a nationally recognized sport.”

Recruiting talent

McMahon said first step toward enhancing lacrosse’s national presence is in running clinics to spread awareness and recruit for the 2015 and 2017 tournaments. McMahon said that this process has largely been handled by some prospective players that she met during her trip to Italy in September.

“They’re traveling all over the country to try to get some games or scrimmages or do practices together,” McMahon said. “They’re running free and open clinics where they’ll invite maybe a girls’ softball team or basketball team or whatever it is to just learn the sport for an hour and show them how to hold a stick and stuff like that.”

McMahon said that targeting girls with experience in soccer, basketball, handball and other more popular Italian sports serves as a gateway for finding players with a potential to play lacrosse.

“Lacrosse is a game that really needs so many skills that are seen in other sports,” McMahon said. “So if you have any sort of background in any of those sports – the spacing, the movement, you can kind of pick up (lacrosse) pretty quickly.

“I really think it could take off but it’s just a matter of reaching enough people.”

Finding this group of interested and talented players, however, won’t be a problem for McMahon, according to Kelsey McGovern. McGovern was a 2014 UMass graduate who finished her career with the most faceoff wins in school history under McMahon’s tutelage.

“(McMahon) recruits very athletic players who really work hard and I think that is sometimes hard to do when you have to mold an athlete into becoming one of your best players,” McGovern said. “I think that’s a strength of hers.”

McGovern, who is now an assistant coach at Bryant University, added that McMahon’s creativity as a coach fits well for an inaugural team just looking to build its program.

“She has new ideas and brings in the best assistants that can teach her players also,” McGovern said. “She can really build lacrosse in that country and will really create a great program come World Cup time.”

In addition to striving for the sport’s development in Italy, McMahon said that her new role presents the opportunity to contribute to the global spread of lacrosse in the hopes that it will one day be added as an Olympic event.

“Obviously the U.S. has been running the table in terms of international lacrosse, but more and more countries are now sponsoring the sport and (the World Cup) is becoming a tournament that’s growing,” McMahon said. “The more growth you have in both men’s and women’s lacrosse, the more likely that eventually it will become an Olympic sport.”

McMahon suggested one method of continuing the sport’s global development would be by setting up similar clinics in other nations similar to those being run in Italy. She said that this provides collegiate athletes a particular chance to travel abroad during breaks from their seasons to help the cause.

“It’s a great way to give back to the game which has obviously given college athletes so many opportunities and it’s just great for your overall professional and personal development,” McMahon said. “As you’re navigating different career paths, it’s a great thing to be a part of.”

While continuing to promote the worldwide development of lacrosse and preparing for the first round of international competition this summer, McMahon said she will have no problem balancing these responsibilities with her obligations at UMass.

With the loss of last year’s senior talent, the Minutewomen open their 2015 campaign unranked, despite receiving some votes in the coaches’ poll. Still, UMass was picked to win by coaches to win its seventh straight Atlantic 10 Championship and hosts UMass Lowell in its season opener Feb. 14 at McGuirk Stadium.

Anthony Chiusano can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @a_chiusano24.