AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass women's lacrosse team ran its win streak to four straight games and remains in first place in the Atlantic 10 with its 18-5 win over previously unbeaten George Washington on Sunday. Meghan Reddy led all players with seven points (3g, 4a), while Haley Smith and Dayna Defliese each posted hat tricks for UMass. Katie Florence allowed just three goals while making nine saves before being lifted with eight minutes remaining in the game.

UMass (7-6, 4-0 A-10) will return to action next Saturday, April 11 against Temple in McGuirk Stadium. Game time is set for 1:00 pm.

The 4-0 start in the Atlantic 10 ties UMass best start in league play since the 1999 season when the Minutewomen finished 4-1 in conference games. The Minutewomen remain in first place in the Atlantic 10 where the top four teams will qualify for the league tournament and a berth to the NCAA Tournament.

The Minutewomen took a 13-2 lead into halftime thanks to a 11-goal run after Katherine Sampson tied the game at 1-1 just under three minutes into the game. Defliese and Smith each scored three goals in that run. Smith scored her fourth goal of the game to cap the run with 6:56 left in the first half to put UMass up 12-1.

George Washington's (4-9, 3-1 A-10) Sarah Phillips stopped the run with an unassisted goal with 2:52 to go, but UMass' Holly Drown took a pretty feed from Reddy to make it 13-2 at the intermission.

The Minutewomen piled on four more goals to start the second half with Reddy scoring her third goal of the game with 16:36 left in the game to make the score 17-2. Phillips scored two more goals and Taylor Donohue scored with 1:36 left to give the final score of 18-5.

UMass outshot George Washington 28-to-18 for the game and held a 16-to-9 edge in draw controls.

Reddy's seven points were a career high as were her four assists in the game. Lyons' five points on the day was the 10th time this season she has registered a multi-point game and gives her 16 points (9g, 7a) in the last three games.

Along with her two goals, Drown added five draw controls which moved her into second all-time at UMass with 104 career draw controls. Drown also kept her scoring streak alive to 13 games. Leslie Barber replaced Florence in goal for the final 7:55 of play where she made one save and allowed two goals.

Phillips led the Colonials with three goals and an assist. Liz Hoffman took the loss in goal allowing 13 goals while making five saves in the first half. Christine Lovett played the second half making three saves while allowing five goals.

2009-04-05