Although the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team is off to a perfect 3-0 start on the season, head coach Angela McMahon hasn’t been as focused on the record, or even stats.
Instead, she’s been using the first few games as a way to judge her own team’s success rather than focus on the quality of play or the quantity of numbers the Minutewomen tally up.
“The focus of the game is trying to improve and get better. We are going to see a different team out there than we saw on Saturday who plays a different style game. We need to adjust our game and capitalize on our strengths,” McMahon said. “Our only focus is tomorrow and nothing else really matters.”
UMass has an opportunity to win its 11th consecutive regular season game with a trip to in-state rival Boson University Wednesday afternoon.
“Tomorrow is a tough game for us. They are a tough team and they are extremely physical and they have great size. I am expecting a great game and it’s always a battle between us. It’s just a great New England rivalry,” McMahon said.
McMahon made it clear that the contest against the Terriers (1-1) is a crucial game for the Minutewomen’s improvement.
“Our focus going into the game is to get better and improve each and everyday and have a great performance in Boston,” McMahon said.
Despite having a small window of time between their game against the Terriers and their previous contest against New Hampshire, McMahon stressed that they have been using practice time to work on minor, but important details.
UMass had only three days of rest following its 12-7 win against the Wildcats on Saturday.
“It has been a pretty quick turnaround. We haven’t done too much or anything crazy, but we have worked on shooting, possession game, draws and working the ball around on offense making sure we have a lot of different threats,” McMahon said.
She also added that the Minutewomen used their time to scout the Terriers. BU has several high level offensive threats that have been scoring big goals for them, such as Mallory Collins who leads the Terriers with nine goals scored on the season.
While Collins has the Minutewomen’s defensive attention, the Terriers will have to find a way to stop UMass’ Hannah Murphy, who has scored 10 goals this season and was recently named the Atlantic 10 player of the Week.
“Hannah is a quiet leader for us, who doesn’t play quiet. She’s so humble and she is always willing to do anything and everything we ask of her. Whether it is coming up with the ball in a draw, scoring a goal, anything we need her to do she is willing to do which makes her such a special and unique player,” McMahon said.
Murphy was instrumental in wins over Connecticut and New Hampshire, scoring seven goals combined in the two games. Against UNH, Murphy scored three goals in the final 15 minutes of the game, putting the finishing touches on the Minutewomen’s third win of the season.
The Terriers will host the Minutewomen at New Balance Field instead of Nickerson Field due to unplayable conditions, which will be the first time that both teams play at New Balance Field.
Matthew Zackman can be reached at [email protected].
