The Massachusetts women’s soccer team began its 2024 season with a 2-0 road defeat at the hands of the Syracuse Orange. After falling behind 2-0 less than 20 minutes into the game, the Minutewomen (0-1) were forced to play the final 70 on a steep uphill climb, one that they couldn’t conquer.

When these two teams met last season, UMass picked up its first win in program history against Syracuse (1-0), in large part because it netted two goals in the first 15 minutes. The returning players on the Orange certainly remembered that, as they came out with more intensity than the Minutewomen and did essentially exactly what their opponents had to them a season before.

Just over 10 minutes into the game, Syracuse forward Ava Uribe caught two Minutewomen defenders flat-footed as a deflected ball kicked up the field toward the UMass net. Uribe quickly collected the ball that landed in the most opportune place for her and was sent on a fast break.

UMass goalkeeper Bella Mendoza was surprised by the speed at which the play unfolded and was left backpedaling as Uribe approached the net. Uribe took a shot from inside the box, across Mendoza’s right side as her momentum dragged her left for an easy goal for the Orange.

Uribe added herself to the scoresheet again seven minutes later when she assisted on the second Syracuse goal of the game. Once again, a deflected ball off of a Minutewomen defender ended up right at the feet of Uribe, this time when she was already inside the goalie box.

Just like the first goal, the UMass back end wasn’t expecting the play to develop so quickly. Syracuse midfielder Ashley Rauch snuck behind two preoccupied Minutewomen defensemen and opened herself up to a wide-open pass from Uribe, which she received and easily tapped in to make the score 2-0.

“We gave up two unfortunate goals where we kind of overextended, tried to poke a ball away and were a bit unsettled in a transitional moment and a [Syracuse] player happened to be in line with the ball,” UMass head coach Jason Dowiak said. “Just unlucky, the player[s] did well with it to finish. Just a little disorganized in the first half from us.

Once the Minutewomen were at a disadvantage early on, they began to bear down for the rest of the first half, beginning to dominate the possession and scoring opportunities.

They carried this play into the second half, when Dowiak asked his team to play with more physicality on the defensive end, which they did.

“I thought we needed to be more physical coming out of the first half,” Dowiak said. “We didn’t have the same kind of physical energy on the defensive side in the first half and the second half was a totally different story.”

This defensive energy in the second half allowed the Minutewomen to greatly limit scoring chances from the Syracuse offense.

The Minutewomen’s improved play led to a final shot total of 18-4 in favor of UMass, while it racked up 11 corner kicks to Syracuse’s three.

Orange goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch was a big reason for UMass’ inability to capitalize on its scoring opportunities. Although she only made three saves, her positioning and reactionary plays during UMass set pieces greatly limited the danger of most of the Minutewomen’s offensive possessions.

“Their keeper did well on the set pieces, and we didn’t put our chances on frame often enough to be more dangerous,” Dowiak said.

Finding ways to capitalize on prime scoring opportunities coming off set pieces will be a focus for the Minutewomen moving forward.

“Last year when we played Syracuse, we scored two in the first 15 minutes and we had the chances to do that tonight as well and we didn’t, and they capitalized,” Dowiak said.

“We haven’t been consistent enough in that area and that’s been a big talking point throughout preseason and coming into this year. This early in the season, we’re so far ahead of where we’ve ever been. If we can figure out [the finishing piece], it’s going to be a deciding factor in just how well we do this year.”

Freshmen Amelia Bloom and Amanda Schultz got their first action in a UMass kit in the season opener. Bloom led the Minutewomen in shots with six, two of which were on net. She played 70 minutes, while Schultz was in for 58 minutes, proving that Dowiak and the UMass coaching staff trust their freshmen early on.

“Fantastic. They’re college ready,” Dowiak said of Bloom and Schultz. “We had a clear feeling going through the last couple weeks of the preseason, they are very ready and to be able to compete and get the time and minutes they did tonight against a group that we have coming back from last year with basically 11 starters back says a lot about just how good they are.”

UMass will now have a full week off to regroup before it heads to West Point to take on Army next Thursday at 3 p.m.

Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @matt_skillings.