The accolades just keep pouring in for Massachusetts women’s lacrosse senior Hannah Murphy.
Murphy scored her 100th career goal and moved into ninth-place on the all-time NCAA draw control list in UMass’ 16-9 win over Harvard Wednesday night in Cambridge.
“She’s the heart and soul of our team,” Minutewomen coach Angela McMahon said about Murphy. “One of the hardest workers I’ve ever coached and any success she had she has worked for, so I’m glad to see her get rewarded for it.”
Murphy concluded the game with three points – all goals – 10 shots on the Crimson net, and 11 draw controls to round out her overall dominant showing.
With temperatures in the single-digits and the wind howling all night long, UMass (4-3, 0-1 A-10) fought through the unfavorable conditions and put Harvard (4-3, 1-0 Ivy League) in an early bind.
After the Crimson scored 2:08 into the game, the Minutewomen registered the next four goals, with three of those goals separated by less than a minute, to quickly take a 4-1 lead.
Harvard tallied another goal, but UMass responded once again with three more of its own to push the score to 7-2 with 16:24 remaining in the half.
The Minutewomen and the Crimson would both add three goals before the frame came to a close and UMass found itself ahead 10-5.
“It’s something we’re working towards,” McMahon said addressing her team’s 10 goal explosion in the first half. “Sometimes it goes according to plan, sometimes it doesn’t, but Hannah had a big night and she gave us a lot of opportunities to score tonight.”
Goal scorers for UMass in the opening 30 minutes were Murphy (three), Hannah Burnett (three), Kaitlyn Cerasi (two), Sarah Crowley and Holly Turner.
The 10-goal outburst for the Minutewomen was the most they scored in one half all season.
In the second frame, UMass picked up right where they left off in the first. The Minutewomen potted four consecutive goals to extend the advantage to 14-5, and basically put the game out of reach for a Harvard comeback.
The Crimson scored four of the next five total goals in the remaining 11 minutes to make the score a little closer, however UMass never really got a scare in its 16-9 victory.
“Great win against a New England rival,” McMahon said. “We came out with really great energy and got off to a hot start. We built off that, which is something we’ve struggled to do, and had a really balanced effort.”
Kiley Anderson was the star of the second half as she recorded all three of her goals in the final 30 minutes. Burnett and Turner added one apiece as well and Ashley Faulhaber earned her first goal of the season in the win.
Turner had the hot-stick for the Minutewomen as she put up six points, (two goals, and four assists) good for the most in one game for the Pittsford, New York native this season. Burnett continued her torrid goal scoring pace in that one and has now scored at least four goals in each of the previous three contests.
This marked UMass’ third straight win, good for its longest winning streak of the season, and pushed its winning percentage above .500 for the first time this season.
Statistics were just about even across the board between these two Massachusetts rivals but the Minutewomen held the upper-hand in draw controls (17-10), and shots (33-25), which ultimately put them over the edge.
Lauren Hiller finished the game with 11 saves.
Maeve McMahon led the charge for the Crimson, compiling four goals along with an assist to finish with five total points, and was followed by Keeley MacAfee who had two goals and a helper.
Harvard goalkeeper Meredith Brown earned the loss in a 12-save effort.
“[We’re] working on a lot of different aspects of our game,” McMahon said. “We responded great after a 12 day layoff with a win against a tough team [tonight] and hopefully we can keep that going into Saturday.”
Ryan Ames can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @_RyanAmes.
