The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team came out fast on Saturday at Garber Field, shutting out the Davidson for the entire first half and finishing the game with a 14-4 victory.
The Minutewomen (7-3, 2-0 Atlantic 10) led 8-0 going into the second half. UMass had two goals each from Hannah Burnett and Hannah Palau, along with a hat trick from Kiley Anderson in the win.
The shutout of Davidson’s (6-4, 1-1 A-10) offense in the first half is attributed to a strong showing by the defense, with goalie Lauren Hiller making six saves in the half.
“I think it was just keep on the gas pedal,” said senior Kasey Keane. “Our identity has really become our ride. I think our success comes from not laying off from the attack, pressuring then pressuring. I think really just if everyone is full-out go, then teams won’t be able to see where the open girl is and our causing them chaos allows us to be successful.”
UMass was able to shut out Davidson’s high scoring players, Jordan Wood and Sarah Kopp, for the entire first half. But, going into the second half, the Wildcats made some adjustments to their approach. Within the first four minutes of the second half, Wood had cut the Minutewomen’s lead to six with back-to-back goals.
These two goals did little to faze UMass. It used a timeout, and came back and scored three goals within three minutes.
“I think it was just being aggressive and playing in attack-mode,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “We won a couple draws so that gave us some good opportunities. We had some great stops on the ride. Specifically out of that timeout, I thought for us to shut them down out of a timeout on the ride and cause a turnover was awesome. We just want to continue being aggressive and give ourselves opportunities on offense.”
The Minutewomen would go on to score a total of six goals in the second half with Anderson’s third of the game, Burnett’s second, and goals by Brooke McDaid, Stephanie Croke and Haley Connaughton. The Wildcats would tally two more goals, but the UMass defense was still very much in the game, causing 14 turnovers in the second half.
Keane was able to capitalize on ground balls and convert a defensive effort into an offensive one while the team was a man down due to a penalty.
“At that point, it’s just everyone working in a cohesive unit on a string and my teammates were in a good position where I was able to read that, because if they weren’t in those spots, then I wouldn’t have been able to get that,” Keane said. “It’s really about them putting in the effort and then scooping in the back to try to get that.”
McMahon expressed that while the offense could have been better, she still believes the team played a good game.
“I think they did well,” McMahon said. “They settled down a little bit, taking the extra second to finish their shots. A few were forced and rushed, so I think we just need to be a little bit more composed than that, but I think, all in all, we had some really good holds on some shot clocks there.
“I was pretty happy with that and just for us to come out with a really strong defensive showing and only giving up four goals, which you know, we’ve given up quite a few more over the past few games, so it was great to see zero at half time.”
Emilia Beuger can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @ebeuger.
