The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team defeated the Boston University Terriers with a score of 21-6 on Saturday afternoon. Fiona McGowan scored the first goal of the game, scoring her third goal of the season, with an assist from Kendra Harbinger.
“A good team win,” head coach Angela McMahon-Serpone said about the big win against the Terriers (0-4). McMahon-Serpone felt like the Minutewomen (3-1) were able to set a strong pace at the beginning of the first period.
With a penalty man advantage, UMass scored its second goal by Olivia Muscella with McGowan’s assist. To match the energy on offense, UMass had then a solid defensive effort on the other end to prevent any shots for a total of 90 seconds resulting in shot clock violation.
The first period had a strong finish from the Minutewomen with Alex Finn scoring the final goal of the period to make it an 8-0 lead. Finn went on to lead the Minutewomen on Saturday, scoring a total of five goals out of six shots along with two assists.
“She’s gaining confidence. She’s playing aggressively,” McMahon-Serpone said of about Finn’s performance. “She’s connecting really well with her teammates both on and off the field and I think that’s really translating into our whole offense gelling together.”
Despite their loss, the Terriers played a strong second and third period. Caroline Pinho scored BU’s first goal with a free position shot. With five shots by the end of the third period, the Terriers had a more offensive play in the middle of the game.
BU goalie Reilly Agres had an impressive performance in Saturday’s game. Agres made 15 saves throughout the game with 20 goal allowances of the season so far.
McMahon-Serpone noted that there was a lull towards the middle of the game but during the half time she spoke with the team about “ramping up our energy” which the Minutewomen brought to the field in the second part of the game.
The Minutewomen came back strong in the third period with Kelly Marra scoring the 12th goal, 28 seconds into the period with an assist from Finn. The goal was the graduate student’s third goal of the game and eighth for the season.
Kendra Harbinger had a notable performance in the game as well scoring three goals and three assists. Gina Carrol was the starting goalie for the Minutewomen and made three saves throughout the game.
With a score of 15-5 in UMass’ favor by the end of the third period, the mercy rule was put into play to start off the fourth period. Towards the middle of the fourth period, Amy Moreau drew control and scored her first of two goals of the game while also assisting two goals in the second and fourth period.
With an assist from Tobey Tick, Hannah Tillier made the sixth and final goal for the Terriers nearing the end of the fourth period.
The Minutewomen scored their last goal of the game with 23 seconds to the period, ending with a final score of 21-6. The last goal was scored by Tessa Shields, making her debut goal of the season.
Now, following the big win on home turf, UMass welcomes Connecticut to town. In 2021, the two teams split wins in overtime. UConn took the first game 12-11 in OT and UMass took the second 15-14 in OT.
“I think it’s just moving on,” McMahon-Serpone said of the strategy going into the next game against UConn. “ This game’s done. Next game, next opponent. Not letting anything linger over and making sure we have a really focused preparation going into UConn.”
The Minutewomen are set to play their last home game until April against UConn (2-1) on March 5th at 1 p.m.
Corinne Arel can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @CorinneArel_09.
