Massachusetts women’s lacrosse coach Angela McMahon couldn’t help but smile when she began to talk about her experiences with her former school. It wasn’t until she arrived in Amherst that she could appreciate the work that she had done to help rebuild a program.
Prior to her tenure at UMass, McMahon was the head coach at Connecticut from 2009-2010. After her first year at the helm finished with a 3-13 record, a year of adjustments and recruitment led to an improved Huskies team that went 9-8, their best record since 2007.
With the Minutewomen hosting UConn Wednesday afternoon at McGuirk Stadium, this game has a deeper personal meaning to the fifth-year UMass coach.
McMahon spoke highly of her former program and said she was happy she was the one who changed the culture for the Huskies. She added that it helped her improve as a coach.
“It was a great experience for me,” McMahon said. “I had been a head coach before, but I think being thrown into a situation where the year before for them couldn’t have been worse, it was a really tough situation and for me it was a great situation to go into to help build something and that’s what I feel like I did. I started the process of building something.”
However, this isn’t the first time McMahon’s matched up against her old team as the Minutewomen defeated UConn in Storrs, Connecticut, last season in a 7-5 win.
Despite a five-goal performance from midfielder Emily Anderson on Sunday, the Huskies dropped their first game of 2015 against James Madison, 15-11. Although the Huskies allowed 15 goals, McMahon doesn’t believe that the first game is a real indicator of how talented the team really is.
“It’s still early in the season, teams are going through different defensive lineups and mixing around different players,” she said. “They have a great goalkeeper and we are going to have to do the little things right if we want to win.”
UConn goalkeeper Shannon Nee allowed 15 goals and recorded seven saves against the Dukes in the season-opener. However, the numbers do not do justice in telling how talented Nee really is.
Nee started every game in cage for the Huskies in 2014 and was named to the All-Big East first team after posting a goal against average of 10.34. After a sub-par shooting performance in the Minutewomen’s season opener against UMass Lowell (18-for-40), McMahon said that was going to be one of the key factors to get the win on Wednesday.
UMass spent extra time over the past few days working on its shooting drills and working to get higher-quality looks to prevent another poor shooting percentage like it had against the River Hawks.
After 11 different players scored for the Minutewomen in their first game, McMahon said she knows her team’s best chance to win is if everyone is getting open looks and not just relying on a couple of players to make plays.
“We have so many different weapons on offense,” McMahon said. “Even some of the younger players are really showing off a lot of their skills in practice. It doesn’t matter what age you are, we are going to play the best players.”
After causing 24 turnovers against UMass Lowell, UMass used its defensive rides to its advantage, making it difficult for the River Hawks to have successful clears.
Coincidentally, the Huskies had 24 turnovers against James Madison and were 10-for-16 on clear attempts. Limiting these clearing opportunities is an aspect that the Minutewomen would like to continue to improve on and make it a staple of their team’s attitude and mindset.
Wednesday’s game will start at 3 p.m.
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
