Massachusetts field hockey defeated La Salle 3-2 after a 50-second overtime period. Co-captain Georgie McTear led the way with a pair of goals and an assist.
Claire Danahy opened the scoreboard for the game for UMass (5-2, 1-1 Atlantic 10) in the 20th minute from 10 yards in front of the goal cage, assisted by McTear.
The match appeared to be a one-sided contest within the first quarter. The Minutewomen dominated overall possession, with a total of five shots, four of which were on target, and two corners – in comparison to the Explorers’ (0-6, 0-3 A-10) absence in the same categories.
However, the second quarter was full of action in which La Salle gained a one-goal lead over UMass. Explorers Tatum Johnson and Samie Hackman scored consecutively in the 21st and 22nd minutes of the game as a counter to Danahy’s goal within the 20th minute. The second quarter favored La Salle’s style of play, which allowed them more overall shot attempts than the Minutewomen in this quarter.
The second quarter buildup for the Explorers can be attributed to the fact that they play on a different turf than UMass, which causes the ball to be a lot bouncier and slower.
“La Salle plays on a different playing surface than what we are used to,” UMass head coach Barb Weinberg said. “We talked about still playing the same team style of hockey, which we did really well in the first quarter. When La Salle put us under a bit of pressure in the second quarter, we started to go very individual with our skills and stopped moving the ball and passing so, it took us a bit to get back into it and in the second quarter it showed. Unfortunately, we gave up two goals.”
The Minutewomen did not let this discourage their prospects of winning the game as they gained traction within the statistics in the third quarter and set their course for a win with sheer domination in terms of attempts, on-target attempts, and corners. La Salle was evidently feeling the UMass pressure and the credit for this can be given to the mentality that they had created since Thursday’s loss against Lock Haven.
“Honestly, I think it was the mentality,” Weinberg said of the difference between the team’s last two games. “We had a long double overtime against Lock Haven and going into the first overtime today the team’s mentality was like we are going to take care of this in two minutes and they were able to do it within 50 seconds. They decided the mentality that they did not want to be there for a long period of time and let’s just take care of the sudden victory as quickly as we can.”
The team is gearing up for its next fixture against Lock Haven next week and Coach Weinberg has her plans ready as to how they are going to tackle them.
“No doubt we need to continue to produce the same number of shots and corners, we have to work on our finishing every day this week, leading up to our game against Lock Haven next week,” Weinberg said. “Statistically, we look great but if you do not put the ball in the net and don’t keep it out at our end – statistics are statistics.”
UMass’ next matchup against Lock Haven is slated to start at 4 p.m. from Pennsylvania.
Karan Choudhary can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @karante_kid.
