The Massachusetts field hockey team won a 4-3 overtime thriller over in-state rival UMass Lowell on Sunday afternoon. Clare Danahy was the hero for the Minutewomen (4-2), scoring her second goal of the season to win the game in OT, bringing the Kennedy Cup back to Amherst for the first time since 2022.

As the clock ticked below a minute left in regulation, UMass was on its last legs, trailing Lowell (3-3) 3-1. UMass used its desperation to its advantage however, picking up two late goals, the latter with time expiring to send the game to overtime.

With momentum on UMass’ side, it didn’t take long for a Minutewomen player to find the back of the net in overtime. Just over three minutes into overtime, Savanna Henderson passed to Hannah De Gast, who quickly passed to Claire Danahy. The graduate student attempted to deke Lowell goalkeeper Marie Oliemans out, but she got just a piece of it.

Danahy stayed with the ball however, and turned around to slap the rebound shot past the Oliemans who didn’t have enough time to set back up in net. The goal gave the Minutewomen their 10th Kennedy Cup victory and a big confidence boost.

“The energy was there, the momentum, we had it; we were just inching it so [the goal] was coming, I felt it,” Danahy said.

Danahy was one of the stars of the game for UMass, opening up scoring for the Minutewomen in the second quarter. De Gast hit a backhander that was blocked away but while the ball was still in the air, Danahy read the ball and tapped it in to make a 1-1 game.

“Just grit,” head coach Barb Weinberg said about Danahy’s performance. “You could just tell that every time she got the ball she was going to go forward and make something happen and find one her teammates and continue to overlap. On the defensive end, she wasn’t going to stop running, she was going to tackle back if we lost the ball.”

The Minutewomen took the game to overtime thanks to some late-game dramatics.

With less than 40 seconds left in regulation and trailing 3-1, De Gast tapped the ball off a Lowell player’s stick and passed the ball to Elani Sherwood. The freshman settled the ball and then back handed it past Oliemans, making the score 3-2.

After Sherwood’s goal, UMass pressed hard offensively for the final 34 seconds of the game.

Then, with two seconds left in regulation, the Minutewomen drew four straight penalty corners. Despite the clock showing all zeros, UMass kept its hopes alive by constantly finding a way to draw a corner.

Eventually, the Minutewomen drew a penalty stroke, and it was Elena Cloconeanu who took the shot. The defender lifted the ball to the top left corner, far enough out of the goalkeeper’s reach to send the game to overtime.

“Our team’s grit and resilience in the fourth quarter was unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Weinberg said. “I think they really believed that they weren’t going to lose that game and they made it happen.”

Although the game ended in UMass’ favor, the Minutewomen struggled to convert on penalty corners. Lowell easily read UMass’ plays, consistently tapping the ball out of the circle any chance they got.

“[Lowell’s] first runner was breaking down really well so anytime we tried to do a passing option she was still on the play,” Weinberg said. “Then anytime we went direct their goalkeeper made an amazing save so I would credit their whole unit for probably scouting us and seeing what we’re likely going to run against them and then their goalkeeper’s reactions.”

The Minutewomen ended the day with 30 penalty corners, including 14 in the fourth quarter, compared to the River Hawks’ four penalty corners throughout the game. Because of all the penalty corners, UMass totaled 50 shots on net while Lowell had just eight.

“The message out of this is that this was a great win and it showed resiliency and grit and all of those tad words from the team,” Weinberg said. “Moving forward there is also lessons to take out of it because if we’re having 50 shots on goal we need to be converting way more often.”

The Minutewomen will open up conference play against Virginia Commonwealth University on Friday, Sept. 20 at home at 3 p.m.

Kayla Gregoire can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kaygregoire.