April 29, 2011

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Top-seeded Massachusetts (15-2) extended its win streak to eight games as the Minutewomen tied the A-10 Tournament record for goals scored in a single-game with a 16-8 victory over fourth-seeded Duquesne (11-7) in the second semifinal of the 2011 Atlantic 10 Women's Lacrosse Championship at Geasey Field. UMass ran out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back advancing to the A-10 finals for the fourth consecutive year and sixth time in school history.

Massachusetts will square-off against Richmond in Sunday's championship final at 1:00 p.m., a rematch of last year's finals which saw the Minutewomen defeat the Spiders 12-10. Both UMass and Richmond are in search of their fourth league title. The A-10 Championship game will be televised live on the CBS Sports Network.

"We are thrilled, we can't wait for Sunday," said UMass head coach Angela McMahon. "It has been our goal all season to get back to the A-10 Championship. The girls have been working so hard and are really coming together especially over these last few weeks in A-10 play. We are playing some of our best lacrosse right now; we are really peaking at the right time, so it should be a great game on Sunday."

Seven UMass players scored a goal in Friday's semifinal victory as two-time, A-10 Offensive Player of the Year Jackie Lyons was the answer early for Massachusetts contributing on five of the seven goals during the Minutewomen's 7-1 run to open the match. The senior attacker recorded two goals and three assists, while Nina Sarcona added two goals to help build the big first half lead. Sarcona and Jesse O'Donnell finished the game with three goals apiece.

Duquesne was led by Katie Rekart who was the only player to register multiple goals for the Dukes on Friday as the senior attacker finished the game with four goals and an assist. She was also a perfect 2-for-2 in free position shots.

UMass wasted very little time in cracking the scoreboard as Sarcona found the back of the net just 38 seconds into the game off an assist from Lyons. The lead grew to 4-0 by the seventh minute of play courtesy of a goal by O'Donnell and two by Lyons.

The Dukes finally broke through with their first goal of the game in the ninth minute when Rekart registered an unassisted goal. UMass quickly responded with three more goals in less than two minutes to take a 7-1 advantage.

"That was a goal of ours to get a lead early," stated McMahon on her team's quick start in Friday's second semifinal. "Duquesne is a great team and they are able to come back so we thought if we maintained a big enough lead in the beginning that hopefully it would give us enough cushion which we ended up needing in the end because they came back and had such a strong second half. I am just glad that we were able to put ourselves in a position to win and that came on ball possession. Draw controls were huge for us today as well."

Rekart brought Duquesne within five of the lead in the 14th minute scoring her second goal of the game, but the Minutewomen closed out the first half on a 4-2 run to take an 11-4 lead into the break. Lyons and O'Donnell each scored two goals for UMass to end the half, while Duquesne's scoring came from Rekart, her third goal of the afternoon, and Caitlin Prince.

Both teams exchanged a pair of goals through the first 10 minutes of the second half. After a goal by A-10 Rookie of the Year Katie Ferris at the 19:10 mark in the second half gave UMass a 14-6 lead, Duquesne scored the next two goals as Cailin Colegrove and Amy Gladfelter found the back of the net to draw within six at 14-8.

But that would be all the scoring for the Dukes as the Minutewomen defense held Duquesne scoreless over the last 6:57. Ali Houlis and Lauren Terracciano added two goals late to close out the scoring.

"In the second half, we were looking to possess the ball a little longer," added McMahon. "We had been taking a lot of quick shots in the first half and not working the clock to our advantage. That was the big thing for us, to focus on taking time off the clock."

The eight-goal victory was the largest margin of victory for UMass in an A-10 Tournament game, while the 16 goals were the most scored by the Minutewomen in a league tournament game surpassing the previous record of 15 scored against Saint Joseph's in the 2009 finals. The 16 goals also tied the single-game A-10 Tournament record, a mark established by Temple back in 2002.

Katie Florence made four saves in goal for the Minutewomen, while Liz Walker recorded 14 saves for the Dukes.

--www.atlantic10.com--