Throughout GW’s contest against Massachusetts Sunday, head coach Tara Hannaford, continued to encourage her team to play smart, particularly emphasizing the importance of transition defense.
GW couldn’t completely control how the Minutewomen played, Hannaford said, but she wanted to see her team remain strong on its game plan and utilize its strengths.
At the beginning of the second half, the Colonials were down 11-6. Still, they maintained within reaching distance at the start of the second part of play, but an immediate 6-0 Massachusetts run sealed the 23-10 loss.
“Before the game, I said that we just need to play our game. We can’t really focus on the other team too much, with the exception of how we are going to play defense. We had a great opportunity to take down a 19th nationally ranked team,” Hannaford said.
Despite senior Sarah Phillips netting her 100thcareer goal, the Colonials struggled to keep up with Massachusetts offensively throughout the entire game. Within the first 53 seconds of play, the Minutewomen scored their first two goals. When the Colonials obtained offensive possession, they remained patient, passing well and setting senior Megan Seidman up for a goal that made the score 6-2 with 23 minutes left.
As the first half came to an end, freshman Addi Bolin netted another goal, while Seidman and sophomore Terasa Vassallo added a goal of their own. At the half Hannaford still believed in her team’s ability to beat the Minutewomen.
“We knew we could score on them when we got possession but we didn’t play as a team. We needed more urgency on defense,” Hannaford said. “I felt good, that we could come back and beat them.”
Massachusetts opened play in the second half strong, exploded into a 6-0 run until Bolin, assisted by freshman Rachel Mia, netted another goal to snap the streak. Phillips scored the second goal of the half and her 21st of the season with 10 minutes left in the game.
Phillips ultimately netted the final goal of the day for the Colonials, marking her 100th career goal.
“It’s definitely a good feeling. I wish it could have been under better circumstances. Overall, we definitely knew we had to play our best game if we wanted to beat them. But on defense, we needed to mark our cutters better,” Phillips said
Massachusetts dominated control of the ball throughout the game, earning a 21-13 edge in draw control battles. The Minutewomen also grabbed more shot opportunities, and netted 23 of their 33 shot attempts.
As the Colonials head into another challenging conference game against Richmond Friday, Phillips emphasized the need for her team to use practice to shake off the loss and improve their play before facing an A-10 rival.
“Richmond is definitely one of the best teams we’re going to face. We’re going to have to play well to beat them,” Phillips said.
