Oct. 28, 2010
AMHERST, Mass. -
The UMass women's soccer team will be looking to clinch an Atlantic 10 tournament berth for a second straight season when the squad plays at Fordham and La Salle this weekend, Oct. 29 and 31, at 7 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. At 7-9-0 on the year, 4-3-0 in the conference, the Minutewomen are currently tied for fourth in the A-10 standings and can secure a spot in the postseason with a victory against either the Rams or the Explorers.
Scouting Fordham
Fordham enters Friday's match with the Minutewomen at 7-9-1 on the year and 3-3-1 in Atlantic 10 play after going 2-0 last weekend with wins over George Washington (2-1) and Richmond (1-0). The Rams have also defeated Xavier (1-0) and earned a point from a 2-2 draw with La Salle.
Michelle Ancelij leads Fordham in scoring with 12 points on five goals and a pair of assists, including three game-winning goals. Katie McDermott follows with nine points (three goals, three assists) and Mariella Romano has contributed eight points (three goals, two assists), with two of her three goals being game-winners.
Rachel Suther has seen the bulk of the minutes in net for the Rams for a total of 923:18. She is 4-7-0 with three shutouts and hods a 1.95 goals-against average and a .643 save percentage.
UMass is 11-4 all-time against Fordham, a series that began with a 7-0 victory for the Minutewomen on Oct. 22, 1995 in Amherst, the first of eight straight wins for UMass in the series.
The Rams have taken the past three matches against the Minutewomen, including a 3-2 overtime win last season and a 3-0 victory in the 2009 Atlantic 10 Tournament.
Scouting La Salle
La Salle, who will play host to Rhode Island on Friday afternoon, enters the weekend at 9-7-2, 3-3-1 in the Atlantic 10. The Explorers have won three of their last four matches, a 2-1 overtime victory over Saint Bonaventure and wins against Richmond (2-1) and George Washington (1-0) last weekend. La Salle's 10th point in conference play came in a 2-2 tie against Fordham.
Renee Washington has a team-best 19 points thus far for the Explorers, on eight goals and three assists, including three game-winners. Anna Dolhansky follows closely behind with 18 points on eight goals and two assists. Leigh Gray is the third La Salle player with a double-figure point total, on three goals and five assists for 11 points.
Gabby Pakhtigian has played all 1692:23 minutes in goal for the Explorers and holds a 1.44 goals-against average and a .771 save percentage with three shutouts to her credit.
UMass is 7-7-0 all-time against La Salle. The series began with a 3-0 for the Minutewomen on Oct. 4, 1996, the first of six straight UMass wins. La Salle has won seven of the past eight meetings, including four straight. Last season, the Explorers defeated the Minutewomen, 3-1 on Rudd Field, with UMass lone goal coming from current senior Sydney Stoll, assisted by Therese Smith.
Offense Overview
Fifteen players have accounted for UMass' 79 points on 27 goals and 25 assists.
Junior Deanna Colarossi paces the Minutewomen with 18 points on eight goals and two assists. Her eight goals matches the highest total by a UMass player since 2004 when Britt Canfield scored 11 before notching eight goals in 2007. Colarossi has two multi-goal games on the season, scoring twice at Fairfield and three times vs. Temple.
Therese Smith follows with a career-high 17 points on seven goals and three assists. She scored in both UMass victories last weekend, including notching the overtime game-winner vs. Saint Joseph's.
Junior Meghan Collins and senior Ashley Hamel are just shy of double-digit point totals with nine and eight, respectively. Collins has three goals and three assists, while Hamel has two goals and four assists. The two have accounted four of UMass' seven game-winning goals, each with two on the year.
In matches the squad has won, the Minutewomen are out-scoring their opponents by a 20-1 margin, nearly doubling up in shots, 131-68.
Three For Dee
Junior Deanna Colarossi scored three times in the first half to lead the UMass women's soccer team past Temple, 5-0 on Oct. 22 at Rudd Field. Colarossi is the first UMass player to score three goals in a game since Oct. 25, 2002, when Erin Lilly had four to tie the program single game record in a 6-1 win over Temple.
Colarossi's hat trick was just the second by an Atlantic 10 player this season.
She became the first Minutewoman to score three times in a half since Katelyn Jones accomplished the feat on Oct. 8, 2000, also vs. Temple.
UMass Measures Up In A-10
As a team, UMass ranks in the top five of the Atlantic 10 for every offensive category as the squad is third in goals-per game (1.69), fourth in assists (25), fourth in assists per-game (1.56), fifth in points (79), fifth in goals (27) and fifth in shots (228)
The Minutewomen have posted six shutouts on the year to rank fourth in the conference.
Senior Therese Smith ranks in the top 10 individually for goals (tied-eighth) , points (eighth), points per-game (eighth) goals per-game (ninth). She is fifth in shots (59) and fourth in shots per-game (3.69).
Junior Deanna Colarossi is sixth in points and points per-game, fifth in goals and sixth in goals per-game.
Senior Ashley Hamel is tied for 10th in assists and tied for ninth in assists per-game.
Minutewomen Earn Weekly Awards
Freshman defender Brittany Moore and senior midfielder Therese Smith were both honored with weekly awards on Monday, Oct. 25, following the Minutewomen's 2-0 conference weekend. Moore was tabbed co-Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week, while Smith was recognized as co-UMass Athlete of the Week.
Moore helped the UMass defense post a pair of shutouts this weekend, 5-0 over Temple and 1-0 over Saint Joseph's, bringing the team total to six shutouts on the year, the most by the Minutewomen since 2006. The freshman anchored a backline that held the Hawks to just two shots on goal in Sunday's contest, while also dishing an assist on the second goal of Friday's match against the Owls.
Smith scored in both UMass victories this past weekend, helping to start the rout of Temple by notching the second goal of the game 18:18 into the match. The midfielder followed up by tallying the overtime winner against Saint Joseph's on Senior Day, the lone goal of the contest.
Making Strides In A-10 Play
Junior Deanna Colarossi's goal in the 55th minute of UMass' match vs. Charlotte on Oct. 1 was the first goal scored for the Minutewomen against the 49ers since winning the first meeting between the squads, 2-0, on Oct. 28, 2005.
In the same weekend, the Minutewomen picked up their first ever win in their series against Saint Louis. UMass was previously 0-5-0 all-time against the Billikens. Junior Megan Collins' goal vs. Saint Louis was also the first for UMass in the all-time series.
Now Vs. Then
The Minutewomen have scored 27 goals to date (16 games) and surpassed last year's total of 15 goals in 19 games just nine games into the season. The current total is the most by a UMass team since 2007 (28 goals in 17 games).
Through 16 games, UMass has 27 goals on 228 shots, while in 2009 through 16 games, the team had 13 goals on 169 shots.
The Minutewomen have surpassed their win total from a year ago with two games still remaining in the regular season. UMass won its seventh game on Oct 24 vs. Saint Joseph's, the most wins for the program since 2007 when the squad won nine games.
Emily's Assist
Sophomore goalkeeper Emily Cota assist on UMass' second tally at Oakland on Sept. 19 was not only the first of her career, but marked the first by a UMass netminder since Kelly Nigh recorded an assist vs. Xavier on Oct. 10, 2003.
Youth Movement
Nine freshmen and sophomores have seen time in the starting lineup this season. Freshman Brittany Moore is one of five players to start all 14 games.
Out of the 15 Minutewomen who have registered points thus far this season, eight have been from the freshmen and sophomore classes. Out of the seven remaining, three scored their first goals in a UMass uniform.
Offensive Outburst
UMass' 4-0 win over Vermont on Sept. 3 marked the most goals scored by the Minutewomen since Sept. 16, 2007, when the squad defeated Hartford, 4-0, at home.
The Minutewomen repeated the four-goal output three games later with a 4-0 victory on the road at Fairfield, the squad's largest margin of victory on the road since Oct. 3, 1999 at St. Joseph's (5-1 win).
Then on Oct. 22 at home vs. Temple, the squad surpassed both of those performances, scoring five goals for the largest scoring output for the Minutewomen since 2002. It was the first five-goal half for the Minutewomen since the 2001 squad routed Duquesne, 7-0.
Prior to this fall, the last time UMass won three games by 4+ goals in the same season was 2001, a 6-2 win against Binghamton and back-to-back victories over St. Bonaventure (5-0) and Duquesne (7-0).
The Minutewomen are out-shooting opponents, 228-206, 120-96 in shots on goal. Three players have logged multi-goal games this season: Therese Smith, Sydney Stoll and Deanna Colarossi.
Home Sweet Home
In the history of UMass women's soccer the squad is 218-67-11 (.755) all-time in Amherst. Five of UMass' six wins last season came at Rudd Field.
The Minutewomen are 40-36-2 (.527) all-time when playing on Rudd.
Welcome Matz
Ed Matz, the former Northeastern women's soccer head coach and 2009 Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year, was named the fifth head coach in UMass women's soccer history on Jan. 7, 2010, and is in his first season on the sidelines with the Minutewomen.
In his coaching tenure at Northeastern, nine seasons with the men's team (1996-2004) and 11 with the women's (1999-2009), Matz posted a combined record of 182-165-41.
Matz earned his first victory as UMass head coach on Sept. 3, a 4-0 win over Vermont. The win also was Matz's 100th of his career as a women's head coach. His career women's coaching record is 106-99-25.
By The Numbers
UMass returns eight players who saw regular time in the starting lineup last fall, not counting goalkeeper Emily Cota. Cota saw action in 17 of the team's 19 games in 2009, playing 1,150 minutes in net.
Of the 42 points the Minutewomen totaled last season, returnees accounted for all but seven. UMass brings back four of its top-five in scoring from 2009, including senior co-captains Therese Smith and Sydney Stoll.
More On The Captains
In 2009, Therese Smith led the Minutewomen with 13 points on five goals and three assists, including two game-winners. She has played in every possible contest for a consecutive matches streak of 70, starting 52 of the past 53. Smith is the team's career scoring leader with 16 goals and nine assists for 41 points.
After returning from injury, which caused her to miss all of 2008, Sydney Stoll made a huge impact in her return to the lineup last season. She registered 11 points on five goals and one assist and represented UMass on the 2009 Atlantic 10 All-Tournament team.
Firsts
Sophomore Jenna Goodwin and freshmen Kayla Austin, Annie Ward and Brittany Moore all made their first collegiate starts in UMass' season opener vs. Washington on Aug. 27. Goodwin played in 12 games as a freshman in 2009, registering one assist.
Freshmen Jen Houtmann, Blair Ferry and Lauren Skesavage made their debuts as Minutewomen off the bench. Skesavage registered two of UMass' nine shots in the contest.
Ferry and Skesavage earned their first career starts against Vermont on Sept. 3, while Austin and junior Meghan Collins scored their first collegiate goals in that match.
Senior Ashley Hamel earned her first collegiate tally in overtime vs. New Hampshire on Sept. 10, while Ferry scored her first goal on Sept. 12 at Fairfield.
Juniors Lindsey DiOrio and Deanna Colarossi both made their first starts for UMass at Oakland on Sept. 19. Houtmann, Moore and sophomore Emily Cota all notched their first career assists vs. the Golden Grizzlies, as well.
Skesavage picked up her first collegiate assist on Sept. 26 vs. Harvard. Freshman Emersyn Pullan made her UMass debut in that match, stopping all three shots she faced in 40:09 minutes of play.
Pullan made her first career start on Oct. 1 vs. Charlotte. She earned her first win and shutout on Oct. 3 against Saint Louis.
Against Temple on Oct. 22, Houtmann made her first career start, while senior Alyssa Visconti picked up her first career point, an assist on the team's third goal of the afternoon. Freshman Alexa Zielinski saw her first collegiate action off the bench in that match, as well.
Sophomore dished an assist on Therese Smith's overtime game-winner vs. Saint Joseph's on Oct. 24 for her first career point.
New Faces
The UMass roster includes 10 newcomers: Kayla Austin, Deanna Colarossi, Blair Ferry, Jen Houtmann, Brittany Moore, Emersyn Pullan, Jenna Skagerlind, Lauren Skesavage, Annie Ward and Alexa Zielinski.
The group consists of five forwards, four defenders and one goalkeeper with four players hailing from Massachusetts, two from Connecticut and one each from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Canada and England.
Colarossi, a junior transfer from Oakland, was an All-Summit League Second Team selection in 2009 after leading the Golden Grizzlies in scoring with 15 points on seven goals and one assist, including three game-winners.
UMass Women's Soccer Now On Twitter
To stay up-to-date on the latest Minutewomen soccer news and scores, follow UMass women's soccer on Twitter, @UMassWSoccer. 
