The No. 15 Massachusetts field hockey team completed a comeback to upset UConn, 2-1, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. UMass (16-5, 5-1 Atlantic 10) will now play in its first Elite Eight game since 2013.
Entering the fourth quarter trailing UConn (17-4, 6-1 Big East Conference) by a goal, the Minutewomen needed a goal to save their season. Fortunately for UMass, after moving defenseman Paula Lorenzini up top, the A-10 Defensive Player of the Year took advantage and scored the game-tying goal four minutes into the fourth. Alexa Collins found Lorenzini close and center in front of the net and the graduate student finished it despite being surrounded by Huskies.
“In the fourth quarter we put [Lorenzini] up in the strike line to try and create something for us. It’s something we’ve practiced, she’s got some of the best hands on the team and, sure enough, she scored our tying goal,” head coach Barb Weinberg said.
Then, with a little over five minutes left in the game, Hannah de Gast got a penalty corner opportunity for UMass. De Gast sent the ball to Claire Danahy who gave it to Lorenzini. The defenseman found an open de Gast up close on the left side of the net and the A-10 second teamer finished the game-winning goal, completing the fourth quarter comeback in the upset victory.
“[De Gast] was just able to keep the keeper down and lift the ball right over her, so it was an unbelievable finish,” Weinberg said.
The Huskies opened up the scoring with freshman Juul Sauer scoring her 13th goal of the season, tying Sophie Perschk for the team lead. Isabel Soeters got a penalty corner opportunity less than seven minutes into the game while Julia Bressler and Milou Hueker picked up the assists.
UConn took three shots in the first quarter, all of which were on goal. After the first, though, the Huskies only took one more shot for the rest of the game, including none in the second half.
For the Minutewomen, they entered the fourth quarter taking only three shots and down a goal. Needing a push, Weinberg wanted her team to gain some momentum and play more aggressively.
“In that point of the game, you’ve got to really press and go for it; and that’s what they did,” Weinberg said. “We switched around our lineup a bit and really pushed the momentum going forward. We were running a really high press and were able to turn the ball over a ton and counterattack, so that’s what gave us the momentum in the fourth quarter.”
Myrte van Herwijnen, the A-10 Goalkeeper of the Year, picked up two total saves. UConn keeper and Big East Championship Most Outstanding Player Natalie McKenna followed up a shutout in the conference title game with four saves but did allow two goals before the Huskies emptied the net with roughly three minutes left in the game to no avail.
UMass found out last Sunday that they had made its first NCAA tournament since 2016 during Selection Sunday. Meanwhile UConn won its conference and earned an automatic bid to become the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
The Minutewomen will now take on the Harvard Crimson in the quarterfinals. The game will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17.
“We’re going to do some scouting, we played Harvard earlier in the season and lost to them in a shootout and we don’t know too much about Syracuse yet, so I’m curious to see who we’re going to matchup with and we’ll prep for the next 48 hours for that,” Weinberg said.
Maxwell Solomon can be reached at [email protected].
