The Massachusetts field hockey team captured its second win of the weekend, topping the Quinnipiac Bobcats, 4-0, on Sunday afternoon. The Minutewomen (6-2, 1-0 Atlantic 10) are on a hot streak, picking up their sixth victory in a row after opening the season 0-2, including a 2-0 win over Virginia Commonwealth on Friday.
“It was a really good weekend for us. I think that our goal is to stay focused on the process on the day to day and we’ve done that,’’ head coach Barb Weinberg said. “I think this team has improved every game that we’ve played this season and if we keep that upwards momentum then we will be in a very good place going into A-10’s”
The Minutewomen had 31 shots to the Bobcat’s (2-6, 0-1 Big East) five, but faced a scoring drought that lasted through the second and third quarters after scoring two goals in the first quarter. With 18 shots total between the two quarters, UMass struggled to find the back of the net.
UMass started the second quarter with a penalty corner, but a shot by Paula Lorenzini nailed into the post and was deflected to Elani Sherwood. The freshman then attempted to score again, but her shot was blocked away by Quinnipiac goalkeeper Christina Torres.
“We need to be more clinical in the circle so in the field of play if that ball comes across, just making sure we’re tapping in with our forehand,” Weinberg said.
The Minutewomen tallied four penalty corners during the second quarter and two in the third, but were unable to capitalize on any, leaving the scorecard blank for the middle two frames of the game.
“On our penalty corners our execution wasn’t great today and that needs to be clinical from our injection to our stop to our delivery,” Weinberg said.
The Minutewomen held the Bobcats to zero penalty corners, tallying 13 themselves. UMass converted on its last goal of the day after Elena Cloconeanu connected with Claire Danahy on a penalty corner for her third goal of the season and her third goal in UMass’s last three games.
“No matter what level you’ve played at internationally, coming into the NCAA system can be a little bit different and [Cloconeanu] is really calming into her own, not only holding it down defensively for us but coming forward and being able to create things on our attack,” Weinberg said.
Hannah de Gast got the scoring started for the Minutewomen, finding the back of the net after a pass from Danahy almost five minutes into the game for her first goal. Danahy assisted once again just minutes later at 9:02, sending a pass to Mia Smith who smacked it past the Bobcats goalkeeper to score her first of the season.
After receiving the ball at the 50-yard line, Dempsey Campbell dribbled all the way into the circle, dodging around the Quinnipiac defense and passing the ball to Gabby Benkenstein. Benkenstein’s shot was blocked, but Campbell snagged it on the rebound, rounding the Quinnipiac goalkeeper and finding the bottom left corner to make it 3-0 with eight minutes left in the game.
“Some strikers just have that fire and that eye for the goal and [Campbell] is one of them,” Weinberg said. “She’s explosive, she’s fast, she’s aggressive and she’s really scary in front of the goal so she needs to keep taking shots.”
Quinnipiac had its best scoring chance during the second quarter after Lucia Pompeo sent the ball flying towards Minutewomen goalkeeper Myrte van Herwijnen. The great individual effort was met with a stop from Van Herwijnen and a scramble to get the ball out of the circle with sticks flying everywhere to keep the Bobcats offensive pressure. The Minutewomen cleared the ball, sending it up the field and keeping Quinnipiac’s score at zero.
The Minutewomen are set to face A-10 rival Saint Joseph’s on Friday, Sept. 27th at 3 p.m. in Philadelphia. The Hawks picked up a 1-0 victory over No. 5 ranked Duke on Sunday, making for a good test to see the strength of the Minutewomen.
“I won’t say too much about our tactics, but I think we’ll have a variety of things we will be able to throw at them, things that we’ve practivied leading up to this game and we’ll be able to implement a lot of different things within that one game,” Weinberg said.
Lucy Postera can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @lucypostera.
