Dean broke the UMass single season draw control record last week while becoming the second player in program history to eclipse 400 draw controls in a career. The junior has 238 this season heading into next week’s Atlantic 10 postseason play.
Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw set a new UMass career-high in goals with five while Skylar Simmonds added four goals in the win. Fiona McGowan added two goals and four assists while Catrina Tobin stopped nine shots between the pipes for the Minutewomen.
Simmonds and Rodriguez-Shaw each found the back of the net in the first quarter as UMass held a 2-1 advantage after 15 minutes of action. Simmonds opened the scoring again in the second before Tessa Shields’ fifteenth goal of the year gave UMass its largest lead of the day at 4-1 with 10:40 to go in the half. Simmonds secured his second hat trick of the season with 3:21 to go in the second, making it 6-3 before the Spiders added two goals in the final 3:08 to make it a 6-5 contest.
After Simmonds scored the first goal of the third, Rodriguez-Shaw secured her hat trick to make it 8-5 in favor of UMass with just over eight minutes to go in the third. Richmond pulled within a goal with two unanswered prior to a McGowan goal off an assist from Simmonds. Rodriguez-Shaw found the back of the net for the fourth time with 1:34 to go in the third before a Spiders goal with under a minute left made it 10-9 heading into the fourth.
Rodriguez-Shaw’s fifth goal early in the final frame made it an 11-9 contest before Richmond responded less than a minute later to make it a one goal game once again. Charlotte Wilmoth put home her 50th goal of the season off a McGowan assist with 8:21 to play while McGowan pushed the lead back to two with 1:53 to go, 13-11.
The top-seeded Minutewomen begin Atlantic 10 Tournament play on Friday, May 3 at noon against the winner of Thursday’s game between the no. 4 and no. 5 seeds. For more information on A-10 postseason play, check UMassAthletics.com for updates.
