After starting out a five-day road trip on the right foot with a victory over St. Bonaventure, the Massachusetts women’s soccer team headed to Richmond, Va. to take on Atlantic 10 foe Virginia Commonwealth, and came away with a point in a scoreless draw.

After 90 minutes of regulation, there was no score. After two overtime periods the score was the same and both teams were awarded with a point in the standings, as neither the Minutewomen (5-5-2, 2-1-1 A-10) nor the Rams (5-3-3, 1-1-2 A-10) could get on the scoreboard with the game at 0-0.

“It was a very hard-fought game,” UMass coach Ed Matz said. “It was a typical A-10 battle, we’re pleased to come out of it with a point. It’s great for both teams, but mostly it’s great to have a four point trip.”

Despite finishing with a 0-0 draw, the Minutewomen were outshot 22 to nine. Of the 22 shots by the Rams, only three were on target and of the nine for the Minutewomen, four were on target.

After the game, Matz said he was most impressed by the performance of redshirt sophomore defender Jenna Thomas.

“I thought that Jenna Thomas did a tremendous job in the back,” Matz said. “She cleaned a lot of balls up, she was good in air. As a team we really showed a lot of character as a group. This is a game that in years past we let slip past us. Jenna and Cassidy had a very good game, so many players played well today.”

Matz said in the last few minutes that his team wasn’t in fact going for a win, but was playing for a draw.

“The last couple of minutes we were looking to earn a tie,” Matz said. “This was a character game, there was a lot of determination and fight. For some of the girls it’s hard to understand how important point is on the road, especially to what our end goal is, to qualify for A-10’s.”

Despite earning four points from two games on the trip, the Minutewomen are doing their best to not look too far to the future.

“It was another step forward, we’re not trying to get ahead of ourselves,” Matz said, “We’re not trying to think about A-10’s. We took a step closer to where we want to be in a few weeks.”

The Minutewomen are back at home for their next two matchups starting with regional rival URI on Thursday at 4 p.m. and A-10 conference leader La Salle on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Zander Manning can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @ZMSportsReport.