Minutewomen reach NCAA LAX tournament

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - A balanced scoring effort and a huge second half propelled the No. 16 UMass women's lacrosse team to a 16-8 win over Canisius on Saturday in the NCAA Play-In Game at McGuirk Stadium. The Minutewomen will find out their opponent Sunday night at 7:30 PM on the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Selection Show which will be streamed online at www.NCAA.com. This will be the second time in the last three seasons that UMass has reached the Big Dance.

UMass improved to 17-2 overall with the win, while Canisius falls to 14-6 overall.

The Minutewomen will be making their fifth all-time Tournament appearance since winning the first-ever women's lacrosse NCAA Tournament in 1982. UMass most recently played in the NCAA Tournament in 2009 falling at Northwestern in the first round.

UMass extended its current win streak to 10-straight games on Saturday thanks to a huge second half. The Minutewomen, three-time defending Atlantic 10 Champions, led the Golden Griffs 6-5 at halftime.

Freshman Katie Ferris and senior Jackie Lyons led UMass with 3 goals and 2 assists each. Ferris' three goals helped her set the UMass single-season goal scoring record giving her 55 for the season. She broke the previous record of 52 set by Kathleen Typadis in 2007.

Jesse O'Donnell also had three goals on the afternoon, while Haley Smith  and Nina Sarcona both posted 2 goals and an assist.

Canisius, coming off its firsts-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship title, was led by Megan Oosting who scored three goals. Lindsey Morgan, Carly Quinn, Brianne Laffey, Kate Gosson and Kristy Wilensky each added one.

Katie Florence earned the win in goal for UMass making four saves. Allison Daley took the loss allowing all 16 goals while making 11 saves in 56 minutes of play. She was lifted by Gina Molfetta (2 saves) for the final four minutes.

UMass jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first 8:32 of play forcing Canisius head coach Scott Teeter to call timeout. The timeout sparked a four-goal run by the Golden Griffs to pull within one, 5-4, before both teams traded goals prior to halftime.

The Minutewomen started the second half on a three-goal run before Laffey scored for Canisius to make it 9-6 at the 19:47 mark.

After both teams traded goals again, the Minutewomen used a six-goal run over a 12 minute span to put the game out of reach as UMass took its largest lead of the day, 16-7 with 3:51 to go. Lyons, Ferris and O'Donnell each scored their third goals of the game in the streak.

A commanding 22-to-5 shot margin for the second half gave UMass the overall shot advantage (39-to-17) for the game. UMass also held the edge in the draw circle controlling 17-of-26 for the game.

The Minutewomen force the Griffs into 22 turnovers thanks in part to their transition defense allowing Canisius to convert 13-of-23 clears.