O'Donnell, Lyons Leads UMass Past Yale, 9-5

from press release

AMHERST, Mass. -- The UMass women's lacrosse team used four unanswered goals in the final 9:36 to pull past Yale 9-5 at McGuirk Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Jesse O'Donnell led all scorers with four goals, while Jackie Lyons scored a pair of goals and added two assists. The Minutewomen return to action on Saturday at Stony Brook (1 PM).

After a slow, methodical first half, UMass (3-4) led 4-2 at halftime. O'Donnell took a feed from Lyons putting the Minutewomen up 3-1 at the 9:27 mark of the first half. O'Donnell scored her second goal of the game with just seven seconds left in the half to give UMass the 4-2 halftime lead.

Yale (1-3) opened the second half with a pair of free position goals in the first 10:17 of play to tie the game 4-4. O'Donnell and Yale's Devon Rhodes traded goals in the next 10 minutes of play to keep the game tied at 5-5.

Lyons sparked the four-goal run for UMass to end the game with an unassisted tally with 9:36 remaining. O'Donnell followed up with her fourth goal two minutes later to extend the lead to 7-5.

Lyons scored again after a nifty feed from Danielle Pelletier before Nina Sarcona completed her three goal day scoring with just 29 seconds left in the game.

The UMass defense gave up a season low five goals in the game. After Rhodes' goal with 10:15 to play, the Minutewomen held the Bulldogs scoreless to pick up the win.

UMass outshot Yale 16-to-8 for the game and also won the ground ball (8-to-4) and draw control (11-to-5) battles. The Minutewomen also committed a season-low nine turnovers in the game.

Katie Florence was made two saves in the game, while Yale's Whitney Quackenbush made six.

The four-goal day for O'Donnell gives her a team-best 18 goals for the season, while Lyons' four-points gives her 17 points for the season.