PHILADELPHIA - For the second consecutive year, the No. 1 seeded UMass women's lacrosse team will appear in the Atlantic 10 Tournament Game after a 12-9 win over fourth-seeded George Washington in the semifinals on Friday afternoon at Temple's Geasey Field. Sophomore Jackie Lyons led all players with five points (2g, 3a), while senior Holly Drown added three goals and an assist. Freshman goalie Katie Florence made 11 saves in the win.

This will be the fourth time UMass has made the A-10 Championship Game since joining the league in 1999. The Minutewomen (10-7) will face the winner of the No. 2 Richmond/No. 3 Saint Joseph's semifinal on Sunday at 1:00 pm. George Washington finishes its season with a 5-12 record.

Taylor Donohue put George Washington up 2-0 in the first four minutes of play. The Minutewomen tied the game with back-to-back goals from Haley Smith (2 goals) and Drown. The teams traded goals for the remainder of the first half before Drown scored her third goal of the first half with 3:45 remaining to give UMass a 5-4 lead at halftime.

After Mia Beheny tied the game 5-5 four minutes into the second half, UMass used a five-goal run sparked by two goals from Meghan Reddy and two from Merritt Cosgrove to go up 10-5 with 15:46 left in regulation.

The Colonials battled back to make it a one-point game, 10-9, thanks to a pair of goals from Audrey Joy and scores from Katherine Sampson and Kristina Beese.

Freshman Danielle Pelletier converted a free position shot with 3:35 to put UMass back up by two, 11-9, before Lyons added an insurance goal 45 seconds later.

UMass outshot George Washington 28-to-24 for the game and held a 13-to-10 edge in draw controls including a 9-4 advantage in the second half.

The 10 wins for UMass is the most since picking up 11 in 2003. The Minutewomen have now won seven of their last eight contests.

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PHILADELPHIA, PA - The No. 4-seed George Washington women's lacrosse team trimmed a five-goal deficit to a single goal, 10-9, with 4:58 to play, but top-seeded Massachusetts added two goals in the final minutes to defeat the Colonials, 12-9, in an Atlantic 10 Championship semifinal match at Temple's Geasey Field Friday afternoon.

GW concludes its season at 5-12 overall after qualifying for its third A-10 Championship in the past five seasons. UMass (10-7) will face the winner of Friday's second semifinal between Richmond and Saint Joseph's on Sunday at 1:00 pm.

Sophomore Audrey Joy (Winchester, MA/Winchester) tallied a hat trick, freshman Kristina Beese (Timonium, MD/St. Paul's School for Girls) had three points on two goals and an assist and junior Taylor Donohue (Villanova, PA/Radnor) added two goals to lead the Colonials' attack, while sophomore goalkeeper Liz Hoffman (Owings Mills, MD/Beth Tfiloh) made a solid 11 saves on 28 shots faced and grabbed a team-high three ground balls.

Junior Mia Breheny (Alexandria, VA/Bishop Ireton) tied the game at 5-5 just over three minutes into the second half, but the Minutewomen rolled off five consecutive goals, aided by three stirkes during a GW yellow card, to grab a 10-5 edge with 15:46 to play.

Joy scored twice, Beese added another and assisted a goal from senior Katherine Sampson (Larchmont, NY/Mamaroneck) for a 4-0 run which brought the Colonials within a goal at 10-9 with 4:58 left.

UMass got goals at the 3:35 and 2:50 marks and GW committed a pair of turnovers in the final minutes as it attempted to complete the comeback.

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2009-04-24