The Minutewomen are set for a first-round rematch with Syracuse at Penn State on Saturday.
AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts field hockey team won’t have any trouble convincing itself that it belongs in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It has a trump card to play when it looks at the bracket and sees itself matched up against a big name (Syracuse), high ranking (No. 5) and gaudy record (17-2).
Once again, the Minutewomen are underdogs, but that’s no change from when they defeated the then-No. 1 Orange 2-1 at Garber Field on Oct. 11.
“We know we can compete with the best. I think we should be ranked in the Top Ten,” senior Hannah Prince said. “We can compete with anyone in the country. Having gotten some wins against the ranked opponents … we know that we can compete with anyone.”
UMass proved itself on its home turf, now it must do so on the campus of Penn State, where the Minutewomen will take on Syracuse at 2 p.m. Saturday.
UMass coach Carla Tagliente believes her team has what it takes not just to beat Syracuse, but to make a deep run in the tournament.
“I think that our strengths lend well for the opponents that we’re going to match up with,” Tagliente said. “I think we’ve been continually getting better and better and better each game and over the course of the past ten games.”
Those past ten games have all been wins, beginning with the victory over the Orange back in October. One of the keys, according to Tagliente, has been execution on set plays.
“I think we have one of the best penalty corners in the country. It’s just about execution at this point. Whoever’s sharpest on the small details and on set pieces, that’s going to be the difference in games,” Tagliente said. “If we can keep executing like that and take care of small details, we’re going to have some really good results.”
A penalty corner is how the Minutewomen scored the overtime game-winner in their NCAA play-in game against Rider on Tuesday in a game that they dominated territorially, but couldn’t break through.
Tagliente said she thought nerves might have been a factor Tuesday, but they won’t be going forward.
“I feel like the nerves are done with this group,” she said. “I feel like the nerves came in the A-10’s, that first Temple game, and I think they were a little bit there against Rider, and now we’re back to that seat that we’ve been in a lot this season of being the underdog.”
Prince said that the team has taken inspiration from first-year assistant coach Shannon Taylor, who scored the lone goal in Team USA’s shocking upset of Argentina in the 2012 Olympics.
“She pretty much stresses to us that we can do anything that we put our minds to,” Prince said. “If we believe in ourselves, we can do it.”
If the Minutewomen defeat Syracuse on Saturday, they’ll take on the winner of the Penn State-Albany game on Sunday for a chance to go to the Final Four for the first time since 1992. The expectations have been high from the get-go, according to Prince.
“We’ve had our sights set pretty high, and now this is the time of year where everything matters — one game and we’re done,” she said. “We’ve been preparing for this since August 7 when we got here."