Women's Lax Wraps Up Playoff Berth With 16-4 Win Over Temple

April 11, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. - Four goals each from Jackie Lyons and Haley Smith backed-up by 12 saves from Katie Florence paved the way as the UMass women's lacrosse team secured an Atlantic 10 playoff spot with a 16-4 win over Temple on Saturday at Garber Field. The Minutewomen extended their win streak to five games giving UMass its best league start in program history at 5-0. UMass will return to action next Friday against Duquesne (3 PM) in McGuirk Stadium. The game will be Senior Day and UMass will honor seniors Holly Drown, Meghan Reddy and Jackie Rosenzweig with a special ceremony.

UMass improves to 8-6 overall and a perfect 5-0 in Atlantic 10 play remaining in first place in the league standings. Temple, the 2008 A-10 Champions, fall to 1-11 overall and 1-4 in the A-10. The win for UMass snaps a 12-game losing streak to the Owls and is the Minutewomen's first win against Temple since a 3-2 overtime win in the 2000 A-10 Championship Game. The five-game win streak is UMass' longest since winning five straight in the 1987 season.

Lyons led all scorers with six points on four goals and two assists along with a game-high five draw controls. Smith added an assist on her four goals, while Holly Drown chipped in three goals to extend her scoring streak to 14 straight games.

Ann Stouffer and Chelsea Roziek each scored two goals to lead Temple. Jessica Colucci took the loss in goal allowing 14 goals while making 11 saves. Tess Bishop played the final 8:46 of the game making one save while allowing two goals.

UMass outshot Temple 32-to-19 for the game and committed a season-low six turnovers. The Minutewomen held a slim edge in both groundballs (13-to-12) and draw controls (11-to-10).

The Owls took a 1-0 lead 33 seconds into the game thanks to Stouffer's first goal of the game. UMass' Dayna Defliese evened the game just over a minute later, but Temple went back up 2-1 on Rosiek's first goal of the day with 19:47 remaining in the first half.

After that, it was all UMass as Holly Drown scored with 16:20 remaining in the first half to even the game and spark an eight-goal run for the Minutewomen. Five different players scored goals in the run including two each from Lyons and Smith.

UMass took an 8-2 lead into halftime with Lyons making it 9-2 with 23:20 remaining in the second half to cap the run.

Rosiek scored on a free position goal to make it 9-3 with 21:51 left, but the Minutewomen strung together five straight goals after that. Lyons and Drown netted a pair each in that run to go up 14-3 with just under nine minutes remaining in the game.

Brittany Brigandi scored the final goal for UMass thanks to Lyons' team leading 17th assist of the season to give the final score with 1:35 left.

Scoreboard