The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team clinched its 12th straight Atlantic 10 regular season title on Saturday. This marks the fifth-straight season that the Minutewomen (12-4, 9-0 A-10) have finished A-10 play undefeated, remaining invincible in the A-10 regular season since 2018.
UMass finished its regular season holding on to a 13-12 win against the Richmond Spiders in an incredibly close game on Saturday. UMass finishes the Atlantic 10 with a record of 9-0, while Richmond (11-5, 7-2 A-10) stands in second place in the conference with a 7-2 record. The Minutewomen finished with a 12-4 record overall, ending their season on an 11-game win streak.
The Minutewomen were led by junior Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw on Saturday, who scored five goals on 10 shots, and Skylar Simmonds who had four goals. Simmonds was just one goal shy of her career high at five which was in a 20-8 win against George Mason earlier this year.
Jordan Dean tallied up a game-high of 17 out of the teams 19 draw controls, which is two more than her season average of 15 per game. The nation leader in draw controls per game now averages over four more draws than second place, which is Florida’s Liz Harrison. This is Dean’s ninth straight game with 15 or more draw controls in a game, and she has tallied 221 draw controls this season alone.
Catrina Tobin led UMass in saves with 10 against the Spiders, while Richmond’s leader in saves was Abby Francioli who had seven. Tobin finished the game with a save percentage of 45.4 percent, and Francioli finished with a save percentage of 35 percent. Both keepers played all 60 minutes of the game.
Richmond managed to stay afloat throughout the game by constantly drawing fouls on UMass. The Minutewomen managed to outfoul the Spiders 23-7.
UMass and Richmond tallied the same number of goals every period besides the first, where the Minutewomen outscored it 2-1 which eventually led to the one-point win over the Spiders.
UMass has had a dominant record this year, leading the A-10 with a 6.6 margin. The Minutewomen also led the A-10 in scoring with 16 goals per game and assists per game with 9.7. UMass also led the A-10 in shots per game at 34.
UMass earns the first seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament, playing the winner of the Saint Joseph’s vs VCU game. The Minutewomen have won nine out of the last 13 A-10 championships, the most recent being 2021.
After starting off the season with a 1-4 record, UMass caught fire winning 11 straight games, winning the A-10 regular season title. UMass has been historically dominant in the A-10 and looks to win the A-10 tournament starting on Friday May 3. The Minutewomen then look to qualify for the NCAA tournament, go all the way and win their first national championship since 1982.
Adam Kysiak can be reached at [email protected].
