The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team cruised past UMass Lowell at Cushing Field in Lowell on Tuesday, winning 18-9. The Minutewomen (8-4, 6-0 Atlantic 10) remain undefeated against the River Hawks (10-4, 1-2 America East) in program history, extending their all-time record against their rivals to 6-0 .
After a slow start — the Minutewomen trailing the River Hawks 4-1 — Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw put up a second goal for the Minutewomen with just under five minutes left in the first half. A yellow card was issued to Lowell’s Audra Hanson after Rodriguez-Shaw’s goal, giving the Minutewomen their first woman-up opportunity of the game. Tessa Shields got the ball from Charlotte Wilmoth in front of the goal, faked out River Hawk goalie Alexa Kuhn and found the back of the net.
“We did a really good job of playing as a team, following the systems and plans,” head coach Jana Drummond said. “We started a little bit shaky in the first quarter, but we really came back to our UMass ways and got ourselves focused on what we needed to do to get the job done and follow the game plan.”
The Minutewomen offense quickly found their momentum after cutting into the River Hawk lead, scoring 15 unanswered goals from the last five minutes of the second quarter until the end of the third. Lauren Tolve tied it up, scoring UMass’ fourth goal, and Kassidy Morris caught a quick pass from Fiona McGowan, turned and shot the ball to give the Minutewomen the lead before the half ended.
“We just had a lot of voices step up on leadership and it was following what we were supposed to be doing, sticking to the offensive motions, sticking to all the X’s and O’s and executing those in each role, and once that started happening it was flowing much better for us,” Drummond said.
Lowell did not score a goal in the third quarter, but Grace Lydon ended the River Hawks dry spell with a tuck 30 seconds into the fourth quarter. The River Hawks scored five goals in the last 15 minutes, trying to close in on the Minutewomen as much as possible.
Eight Minutewomen scored goals, and Morris, Wilmoth and Ava Connaughton each netted hat tricks. Rodriguez-Shaw, Tolve and Skylar Simmonds each put up two goals; McGowan and Shields each scored one. UMass capitalized on River Hawk penalties, scoring four goals on four woman-up opportunities.
“[Assistant Coach Dani Ellis] just does a really great job at keeping them calm and giving them the right tools to be successful so when they were listening, when they were following that, they were playing selflessly and knowing where the holes were in that, which helped us a ton,” Drummond said.
The River Hawks started off the game’s scoring, potting the first goal in the first minute of the match when Megan Brockbank squeezed a bounce shot through goalkeeper Catrina Tobin’s legs. Lydon got another shot past Tobin, giving the River Hawks a two-goal lead early on. Chloe Bowers led UMass Lowell in goals, earning a hat trick. Hanson, Jade Catlin and Jillian Goldie each scored one goal for the River Hawks.
“Just really making sure we’re getting better each game,” Drummond said. “The mentality we’ve been having each game is just focusing on us, and having that you-versus-you mentality, so if we can just keep getting better, using each game as an opportunity to learn from and improve from, then it’ll just keep us going on the momentum of going forward and progression which is what we’re looking for.”
The Minutewomen return to Garber Field to face Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday, April 13 at 12 p.m.
Devin Lippman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @devinlippman.
