No. 16 Women's Lacrosse Advances to Atlantic 10 Championship

May 6, 2016

Box Score (PDF Box) | Season Stats (PDF Stats) | Career Stats |

PITTSBURGH - A four-goal run in the first half provided all the cushion No. 16 UMass needed as the top-seeded Minutewomen defeated No. 4 seed Saint Joseph's 13-8 on Friday afternoon in the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinal. The Minutewomen will advance to Sunday's A-10 Championship game facing No. 6 seed Richmond for the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

UMass (17-1) will also be playing for its eighth straight Atlantic 10 title on Sunday and its ninth overall.

The Minutewomen were led on Friday by Erika Eipp who had three goals and three assists. Hannah Murphy added three goals of her own along with two assists and eight draw controls.

Hannah Burnett and Holly Turner each added two goals and an assist, while Ashley Faulhaber netted a pair as well.

Defensively, Kate Farnham led UMass with a game-high five caused turnovers, three groundballs and two draw controls.

The opening 20 minutes of play saw both teams trade goals resulting in a 3-3 tie after back-to-back tallies from the Hawks with 11:13 left in the first half.

UMass then strung together four straight goals highlighted by goals from Faulhaber and Santos just 10 seconds apart putting the Minutewomen up 7-3 with 5:22 left before halftime.

The Hawks pulled back within three goals three minutes later to trail 7-4 at the intermission.

Burnett added a quick goal to start the second half pushing the lead back to four. Back-to-back strikes from Turner and Faulhaber extended the lead to 10-5 with 19:23 left in the game.

From there the team's traded goals before Murphy scored her third of the day with 42 seconds remaining. The Hawks closed the scoring just before the buzzer to give the final score.

UMass outshot Saint Joseph's 27-to-20 for the game and won 16-of-22 draw controls to maintain possession. The Minutewomen did commit 16 turnovers in the game while the Hawks had 19 miscues.

Scoreboard