UConn’s Cassie Ekstrom (#17) receives a pass during the Huskies’ win over UNH last week. UConn lost in overtime to UMass this weekend. (Amar Batra/The Daily Campus)
UConn women’s lacrosse traveled to Amherst, Mass. on Sunday, March 5 to take on UMass. The Huskies looked to continue to improve from their latest win against New Hampshire. They face a struggling UMass team who most recently lost to No. 5 Syracuse last Saturday.
Both teams started out slow. UMass opened up the scoring with a goal from redshirt junior Hannah Burnett with 24:52 left in the first half. UConn finally got on the board 10 minutes in, with a goal from sophomore attacker Lexi Kenneally assisted by junior Grace Nolan. The Huskies’ added another goal from Sarah Smith, but then Minutemen went of a six goal run with goals from Hannah Murphy, Callie Santos, Kiley Anderson, Holly Turner and two more from Hannah Burnett.
UConn climbed their way back into the game with a goal from Kelsey Catalano with 11:25 left in the first half. Senior Molly O’Reilly added another goal for the Huskies at the end of the half. UMass led 7-4 at the half.
The Huskies got on the board first in the second half with a goal from senior attacker Maggie Tripodi, assisted by O’Reilly. UMass finally responded with a free position goal from junior Abby Walker. The Huskies add another three goals with two from Jacqueline Jordan and one from Tripodi.
UConn took the first lead of the game since the first half with another goal from Tripodi with 5:21 left in the game. UMass responded with another goal from Burnett assisted my Murphy. The Huskies and Minutewomen ended regulation tied at nine.
Overtime for women’s lacrosse is sudden victory, so whoever scores the first goal wins. UConn’s Costello controlled the opening draw leading to a shot by Jordan that was saved by UMass’s goalie Lauren Hiller. Hiller had a solid game with 10 total saves and UConn’s freshman goalie Grace Beshlian had yet another impressive performance with 13 saves.
UMass called a timeout with 3:41 left in the sixth minute overtime period to set up the game-winning goal from Santos, assisted by Murphy. With the win, UMass improves to 2-3 and UConn falls to 2-3.
The Huskies travel to California to play No. 20 Stanford over spring break. They will be back home for their first conference game against No. 3 Florida on Saturday, March 18.
Sophia Ross is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can reached via email at sophia.ross@uconn.edu.
