In its final opportunity to clinch an Atlantic 10 championship, the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team opens its season at home against Dartmouth on Saturday. The Minutewomen finished their 2024 campaign with a 13-5 record, going undefeated against conference opponents and clinching their 12th straight A-10 regular season title.
UMass faces a tough start to its season, with strong opponents in defending national champion No. 1 Boston College, Dartmouth, Holy Cross and UConn in four of its first five match ups.
“It’s a good challenge for the girls just to really test the skills and test the limits, but also see what we have to work on going through into A-10’s to have time to develop once we hit the tournament or those tougher games in competition,” head coach Jana Drummond said. “We can hang with them, we can do all those things that we do as long as we keep it focused on the game plan and what we need to do.”
Senior defender Jordan Dean enters the 2025 season holding the NCAA Division I single season record for draw controls with 261. The previous record was 221. Dean also broke former Minutewoman Caitlyn Petro’s single season draw control record of 220 set in 2021. Earning a career high of 20 draw controls in a game against VCU, Dean finished with double-digit draw controls in 15 of 18 games.
“[Dean’s] gotten herself in phenomenal fitness to be able to run the field a little bit more, so you can see a little bit more of that defense added into our game,” Drummond said. “She is a team captain for us so just seeing her put everything out there has been incredible. We’re really excited to see her continually lead this team again for the second year in a row.”
The Ontario native received selection as a USA Lacrosse Preseason Division I Women’s Preseason All-American to start her 2025 season. Dean earned USA Lacrosse Honorable Mention All-American honors at the end of her junior season.
UMass lost two of its top three point leaders in Fiona McGowan and Charlotte Wilmoth. Kassidy Morris returns for her junior season after leading the team with 63 goals and coming second in points with 79 to McGowan’s 88. The attacker ranked 21st in the nation for goals scored, 24th for Division I goals per game with 3.5 and posted hat tricks in 14 games. Morris scored a career high seven goals and eight points last season against UConn.
Dean and Morris were both named to the All A-10 preseason team for their standout performances last season. The Minutewomen are ranked second to Richmond in the A-10 preseason polls, receiving 112 votes with three for first place. The Spiders earned the top spot after Alexis Morton scored the game-winning goal with three minutes left in the game, pulling out a gritty 14-13 win for the conference championship.
Catrina Tobin resumes her starting position between the pipes for UMass. The redshirt junior posted 122 saves and a 0.425 save percentage in 2024. Freshman Bayley Duffy joins Tobin in net. Duffy was named the 2024 NYS Player of the Year and a US Lacrosse All American in her senior year.
The only two other returning starters for UMass are senior Lauren Tolve and junior Heather Clark. The midfielder finished her junior season with 20 points from 10 goals and 10 assists. Tolve and Clark lead the returning Minutewomen in caused turnovers with 21 and 10 respectively.
Other notable returners for UMass are Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw, Tessa Shields, Lil Hancock and Ava Connaughton. Attackers Shields and Rodriguez-Shaw finished last season second and third in points out of the returning players with 28 and 23 respectively.
Sophomores Hancock and Connaughton both had strong freshman campaigns. Connaughton recorded 19 points on 14 goals and five helpers, and Hancock finished with seven goals and a 0.875 shot percentage.
New to the team is graduate student Lauren Carey. The defender transferred from Old Dominion for her final year of eligibility. Carey recorded 27 ground balls, 18 caused turnovers and was second for the Monarchs in draw controls with 28.
“[Carey’s] coming in as a fifth year and she’s been doing such a great job of leading and just being a voice and helping with [mentoring the younger defenders]. It’s been awesome, especially being the defensive coach, seeing how they’re blending together and building that chemistry because it is a little bit new,” Drummond said.
With high expectations and a challenging schedule ahead, UMass looks for one final A-10 conference championship before switching over to the Mid-American Conference.
“I want these girls to look back and be like, ‘we gave everything we possibly could,’ and loving those moments,” Drummond said. “We talk a ton about the sisterhood, the family atmosphere and all of that. Those are going to be the memories, [you’re] not going to necessarily remember how many goals you scored. It’s going to be how you feel and how you came together and how much you gave for the team.”
The Minutewomen start their 2025 campaign against Dartmouth at Garber Field on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 1 p.m.
Devin Lippman can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @devinlippman.
