The last time a team from the University of Massachusetts played at Michigan Stadium – aka “The Big House” – the UMass football team walked off the field in a 63-13 defeat in its third game in FBS football.
Friday afternoon, the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team had drastically different results.
The Minutewomen (6-1) walk away with an easy 15-5 victory against Michigan behind a five-goal performance from attacker Nicole Troost and a hat trick from Holly Turner as UMass won it’s second straight road game after defeating Connecticut 15-6 last Saturday.
The Wolverines (4-5) that had previously won three of their first four home games of the season with Friday’s game being the first inside Michigan Stadium as their first four were played at Oosterbaan Field House.
“We made sure to get out on the field early and go through our walkthroughs and just get as acclimated as possible to the atmosphere here,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said.
The Minutewomen adjusted early with the opening goal scored by Troost just 26 seconds from the opening face off. She was assisted by Turner, who would go on to score a game-high seven points (three goals, four assists).
“(Turner) is really able to read the defense well, and what’s in front of her. She made a lot of big plays for us and we really needed that,” McMahon said.
Following the quick start, UMass went on to score six of the first seven goals of the game, taking a commanding 8-2 lead into the half.
In the second half Michigan began to creep back into the game scoring three unanswered goals from Kelly Schlansker, Anna Schueler and Kim Coughlan over the span of two minutes, 22 seconds to bring the score to 10-5.
However, the Minutewomen closed the game with a five-goal run, with Troost and Turner accounting for four of them.
Offensively, UMass connected on over 50 percent of their 29 shots on goal in the game. Troost continued her impressive start adding five to her now team-leading 22 total goals on the season.
While the offense was efficient for the Minutewomen, their second ranked defense (5.68 goals allowed average) held strong at the other end forcing 25 turnovers and allowed only 14 shots. UMass also won the ground ball advantage 24-14.
“I think we did a very good job with our full ride, and we really applied pressure on Michigan,” McMahon said. “I thought our goalies came up big against the few shots that they saw as well”.
The Minutewomen will host Albany Wednesday at Garber Field, putting their 16-game home winning streak dating back to 2014 on the line against the Great Danes. UMass’ only loss of the regular season last year came against Albany in a 7-4 loss on March 19.
Nicholas Souza can be reached at [email protected].
