Overpowered in almost every statistical team category Thursday afternoon, Massachusetts women’s lacrosse fell to Boston College in a double-digit loss, 25-14.
As twilight shadows loomed over Garber Field, UMass (1-1) struggled to stay with No. 1 B.C. (3-0). The Eagles could possibly be the most talented team UMass will face on their non-conference schedule.
“It was always the comeback, like, ‘We’ve got the next one’ attitude,” Caitlyn Petro, an attack and draw-specialist, said. “It was a little tough being down four goals early on, but I think the team had the right attitude where it’s like, ‘one at a time, climb back out.’ I think it fired us up more than anything.”
However, the Minutewomen were never able to mount a comeback as they desperately tried to stay with an overpowering B.C. offense. The top offensive players for the Eagles were Sam Apuzzo and Kenzie Kent, who each had four goals in the game.
UMass went down early, setting themselves back 4-0 in the first five minutes. Midway through the first B.C. would go on another run, 9-3, which gave it an eight-point lead.
“We backed ourselves into a corner a little bit,” coach Angela McMahon said. “We were doing what we needed to do, they just stepped up and made plays when they needed to.”
Come second period, the Eagles buried the Minutewomen with an 8-2 run that all but decided the game.
“It was just kind of a breakdown all the way through,” Petro said of the 8-2 run. “I just think that we were too focused on the score at that point. It’s a little bit sad to look up at the scoreboard and see that [deficit], but once we started focusing on our game again, we started to score those goals back.”
B.C. dominated the draw controls as well, 24-15. After the Eagles went up 5-2 early in the game, McMahon chose to switch out Kiley Anderson as Petro took over duties in the circle. From that point on, the Minutewomen won 13 of 27 draw controls.
“We had a really aggressive draw-control game, where it was a fight all the way through,” said Petro. “I think that was the one area where we didn’t let up.”
Between the pipes, freshman net-minder Gina Carroll made 14 saves on 39 shots-on-net.
“I was hyped,” said Petro. “I don’t know about anyone else, but Gina can just get the crowd going. She makes fantastic saves, like you never see goalies make kick saves where she’s on the other end of the crease and just dives to go catch it. She’s a real energy pusher… the score doesn’t reflect the kind of game that she had.”
With starting goalie Lauren Hiller out the past two games with a hand injury, Carroll has gotten quality experience in the cage as a rookie.
“I think this is such an amazing experience for her right now, to be out there,” McMahon said. “She’s having success, she’s making mistakes, she’s figuring it out, she’s learning. But I think she’s just so talented, and she wants to perform for her team so bad. You can see that intensity that she brings to the field.”
UMass also shot over 50 percent on the day, 14 goals for 27 shots, and McMahon was able to find a silver lining in Thursday’s matchup.
“We got some pretty quality shots off,” said McMahon. “I thought we were able to run our offense and dictate what we wanted to do.”
Boston College is fresh off a 2018 NCAA Championship run, meeting James Madison in the final and suffering a devastating one-point loss, 16-15.
UMass will hop back into action on Wednesday against another Boston-area school, Harvard University. That game is slated for 3 p.m. start at Harvard.
Ryan Beaton can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @ry_beaton.
