 "Photo: P.J. Stanley/Collegian")
It turns out the best the University of Massachusetts team was playing this weekend, after all.
I'm not talking about the football team. It was off this Saturday with its bye week, still reeling over two consecutive beat-downs.
And no, I'm not even talking about the men's soccer team - a team that reached the College Cup just last season.
The best team Amherst has going right now is the field hockey team. It went out and proved it this weekend - something neither the football team nor the soccer team has done yet.
Led by second-year coach Justine Sowry, the Minutewomen defeated No. 18 Albany at Garber Field on Saturday. But after 35 minutes of play - and a 4-0 halftime deficit - on Sunday against No. 2 Syracuse, that all seemed to be a fluke.
The next 35 minutes proved that it wasn't.
Led by two second-half goals from Katelyn Orlando and Jill Powers, the Minutewomen stormed back to pull within one goal at 5-4 with just over seven minutes to play.
They never scored that goal, but this team scored one for the program this weekend - a program that went through five consecutive losing seasons (with a combined record of 33-72) under former coach Patty Shea before Sowry and her staff took over last season.
And it didn't take her long to change the losing culture. The Minutewomen surprised everyone in 2007, capturing the Atlantic 10 championship for the first time in since 2001, ending Richmond's streak of five straight conference titles.
UMass won its NCAA Play-In Game against Princeton, but dropped its next game against Connecticut. If this year's Minutewomen (7-3) continue to play this well, look for them to make the NCAA tournament again.
But in the meantime, look for this team to finally crack the Top 25 poll when it comes out on Monday.
"It would mean a whole lot," Sowry said of potentially making the rankings. "If the country doesn't stand up and notice us this weekend, then they never will.
"If when it comes out and we're in, fantastic. We will be pretty happy, we'll cheer," Sowry added. "But if we don't take care of business next weekend, it will be the quickest in and out of the rankings that you've ever seen."
UMass has narrow one-goal losses to both No. 10 Boston College and against the second-ranked Orange. Despite the tough decisions, it proved to the young Minutewomen that they can compete with the best teams in the country.
But what concerns Sowry is how her team does against some of the other teams.
"We've proven that we can play against any opponent now, but we need to learn how to beat the middle-of-the-road teams," she said.
Sowry said that in reference to the overtime games against both Brown and Harvard earlier this season - games in which the Minutewomen found a way to win.
"Mental toughness is something coach really stresses to us, and it's just great to know that we have it in us to come back like that," captain Mary Shea said after Sunday's game. "I'm really pleased with that we've done so far this season - I think we're so much further along this season than last year."
Just wait until next season, though. And the year after that. This is a team built on youth, a group of players that are only going to get better with each passing year. Losing Shea, Orlando and Erin Parker after this season to graduation will hurt, but the corps of this team will be here for a long time to come.
And Sowry can't wait to see what success will come with it.
"I'm incredibly excited about our future," she said. "Our recruitment has been going well and our freshmen are working hard in practice. It's an exciting future and time for this program."
The young players are doing so well (most notably freshman goalkeeper Alesha Widdall) that the veteran players on the team sometimes forget how young their teammates on the field really are.
"We're definitely a younger team now compared to last year, but we don't really view people as freshman and sophomores," Shea said. "It's more about what people do on the field. Our younger players are really stepping up."
Sowry doesn't want her team to get ahead of itself, though. She still sees a lot of work that needs to be done.
"We're still behind the best teams, player-for-player and skill-wise," she said. "But where we lack in skill, we make up for with our tenacious pressure and determination."
But even as of this second, they are behind no team currently wearing maroon and white.
Eli Rosenswaike is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at erosensw@dailycollegian.com.
Be the first to comment on this article!