ITHACA, New York — UMass battled through tense moments in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse tournament against Cornell but never surrendered the lead in a 7-6 win Sunday.
For a program starved for a deep NCAA tournament run, the win marked the Minutewomen’s first advancement into the quarterfinal round since 1984.
The 20th victory of the campaign tied a school record with the 1978 team that finished 20-2-2.
“We’ve been talking about it since the beginning of the season with this team and our leadership,” said UMass coach Angela McMahon. “We knew this was a year where we could really make a good run. It’s hard to do, it’s a lot of games, but these guys really stuck to it.”
UMass will play top-seeded and unbeaten Marylandon the road next weekend.
Most of the team’s senior class also got over a hump with the victory, as the team had lost in the second round two of the previous three seasons.
“It feels great, for the past three years that’s what we’ve wanted,” said senior Erika Eipp. “This year I feel like the team is very special, and we wanted this from the beginning, and our senior class wanted this to keep going and to stay together as long as we can.”
Eipp teamed with fellow senior Eileen McDonald to stake the Minutewomen a 4-0 lead in the game’s opening 10 minutes, both scoring or assisting all four goals.
McDonald’s contributions in the game’s opening half showed up elsewhere on the stat sheet with three ground balls to help UMass lead the category 10-3 at half, which helped them claim a 6-4 lead through 30 into the halftime break.
“I think our defense really stood out today and put a lot of pressure on their offense,” said McMahon. “When that happens and balls hit the ground, I like our chances just with our speed and our mental fortitude.”
The host Ivy League champions did not go quietly and came out with a new approach in the game’s second half, which changed the complexion of the contest.
“We talked about it at halftime that we wanted to get angry,” said Cornell senior Brittany Marriott. “We’re a championship team. We were seeded No. 8 going into this, and we need to play like it.”
The championship pedigree from the home side was delayed after Hannah Murphy netted her 34th goal of the season to extend the UMass lead to 7-4.
After that, the Big Red came with a wave of two goals in two and a half minutes from Joey Coffy and Taylor Reed to cut the deficit to one with over 20 minutes to play.
Sophomore Aileen Kelly relieved freshman goalkeeper Sam Walters to begin the second half and allowed the Big Red tallies, but Cornell’s goals were a wake up call for her and her teammates, which kept the Minutewomen clamped down defensively for the remainder of the contest.
“The defense was awesome,” said Kelly on the second half performance. “I was coming up with saves, but it was all from them forcing bad shots.”
Kelly’s momentum continued to build in the contest’s closing half with her making all six of her saves after the Big Red’s sixth goal. On the other end, Renee Poullot kept Cornell in the game and stonewalled UMass with five saves on six shots in the second half, which set up another thrilling defensive finish, which the Minutewomen enjoyed.
“It was crazy,” said Eipp. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get the win until the last second, but it was the best feeling in just knowing that we did it, and we’re not done yet.”