In its fifth Mid-American Conference game, the Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team defeated Eastern Michigan 14-4 on Saturday in the two programs’ first ever meeting.
After a slow first half, the Minutewomen (12-2, 5-0 MAC) were kept in the game by none other than Kassidy Morris. Ending the day with four goals, the redshirt senior led UMass with six points.
Morris’ hat trick goal found the back of Eagles (8-6, 3-2 MAC) goalkeeper Maddy Porter’s net with 1:21 left in the third. The goal came just four and a half minutes after her first of the day.
The attacker received the ball from Katie Peterson outside of the eight-meter arc. After the ball found her stick, Morris ran inside, shooting over Porter’s shoulder up near the crease.
The Ontario native’s fourth goal of the contest came two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter. Spinning around her defender and shouldering inside the 8-meter, Morris shot with a wrist flick to put the Minutewomen ahead 12-4.
Her first two goals were made within 32 seconds of each other. The first was made in a woman-up scenario with an assist from Norah Prizzi. The former Atlantic 10 Player of the Year’s second found the back of the net from a Dylan Lyons assist as Morris fell to the ground shooting.
What did Eastern Michigan do well to prevent that goal total from going even higher?
“[The Eagles] were sending some early slides, [there were some] really good defensive plays by them,” head coach Jana Drummond said. “Eastern Michigan was a very respectful opponent, scouting us well.”
Continuing her exceptional season, Lyons scored four goals herself during the afternoon. Her final shot closed out the game in the fourth with 2:19 on the clock.
Running inside the 8-meter arc to receive a hand-off assisting pass from Connaughton, the junior placed herself near Porter’s crease, shooting over her shoulder.
Lyons also opened the game’s scoring with a shot just over seven minutes into the contest. Her hat trick goal came early in the third, unassisted: it was the only goal that quarter which wasn’t made by Morris.
In the draw circle, Cate Marshall took many of the draw controls in place of Katie Peterson. The freshman earned 10 of her team’s 12 victories in the stat. The Grand Rapids, MI native has amassed 103 during her debut season.
Saturday’s matchup was the second-smallest win for the Minutewomen since their 18-10 defeat of Akron on April 4. That contest against the Zips saw the most turnovers of the season committed by the team with 18. Against the Eagles, that number remained the same.
While UMass has remained both dominant and consistent, there are still areas of improvement. From free position shots, it went 0-for-2. This is the third time this season that the Minutewomen have not made any of their awarded shots.
Additionally, UMass was shown five cards over the course of the 60 minutes. Of those five, three were green cards and the remaining were yellow. Heather Clark received both yellows shown to the Minutewomen.
With two regular season games remaining on UMass’ schedule, dominant performances from Lyons, Morris and Connaughton can help guide the Minutewomen to an undefeated debut season in the MAC.
UMass will remain on the road next when they face Detroit Mercy on Saturday, April 18. First draw is scheduled for 12 p.m.
“Learning from [Saturday]…we had way too many failed clears,” Drummond said. “Too many turnovers. So, if we get those down going into the next game and progress forward and focus on our game, [that] will help us to continue to progress overall as a team.”
Emma Bensley can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @emmabensley4.
