The UMass women’s lacrosse team returned home to Garber Field following a three-game road trip and notched a 13-7 victory over Albany, Wednesday afternoon.
The Minutewomen got off to a hot start with a goal from Eileen McDonald 48 seconds into the game.
The offense continued to roll, as UMass got out to a 5-0 lead 12 minutes into the games behind two goals from Hannah Burnett and one each from Erika Eipp and Holly Turner.
Burnett, Eipp and Hannah Murphy powered the unit with three goals apiece.
While Albany (3-3) sporadically found the back of the net, No. 20 UMass (7-1) was able to keep a three-to-five goal lead throughout the game. This was in large part due to the team’s versatility on offense, as seven players scored goals.
“It’s huge,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “Creating a rhythm, whether it’s one, two or as many people as we can get involved, and the ability to go on runs and dictate the pace and momentum of the game, I thought we did a great job at that. The more people we get involved, the harder it is to mark us defensively.”
There was a certain revenge factor to the game, as UMass dropped a 7-4 loss to Albany nearly a year ago. Murphy said the team was ready and was excited to avenge last year’s defeat.
“It was very important,” she said. “We were really hungry. Albany is a great team, but we don’t lose on our home turf. We really wanted to get this one and show them who we are.”
The history between the two teams, as well as a similar style of play, resulted in a physical contest. The teams combined for 49 fouls. McMahon said that her team was prepared.
“Albany is similar to us in that they’re very blue collar and gritty, so we know that every time we play them it’s going to be a battle,” she said. “I thought while we handled it pretty well in the first half, we could have been a little more composed in the second.”
One of the keys to victory was UMass’ defensive effort. The Minutewomen, who led 8-5 at halftime, held Albany to just four shots in the second half.
“We knew they had a lot of top dodgers and a lot of really good players, so we focused in on our scouting report and had our matchups and our game plan,” defenseman Kate Farnham said. “We wanted to watch those top players and I thought that helped us win the game.”
It was the last nonconference game for UMass, which after playing all but one March game on the road, opens Atlantic 10 play at Saint Joseph’s on April 1.
“I really like where our team is at, considering we’ve only lost one game (9-8 defeat at Boston College) during a stretch of really tough out of conference opponents,” McMahon said. “The good news is we haven’t necessarily played an amazing game yet, so we have a lot of things we can continue to work on to get better, which is where we should be halfway through. We’re happy to have the record we have, and happy that we have a lot of things to work on.”
UMass has gone undefeated against A-10 foes during the last five regular seasons. It was won 36 straight regular season conference games.
The Minutewomen have won the last seven conference tournament championships.
“We just finished our non-conference schedule, and we played some really tough competition that has gotten us ready for this,” Farnham said. “We call this our ‘second season’ so now were getting into Atlantic 10 time and it’s really fun. It’s a completely different season and were going after an Atlantic 10 championship again, and trying to get that NCAA bid.”