After conceding the first goal two minutes, seven seconds into the game, the Owls scored six consecutive goals on their way to a 18-3 win against the University of California, Berkeley on Saturday at Geasey Field.
Senior midfielder Megan Tiernan and junior attackers Anna Frederick and Brooke Williams each scored a hat-trick in the 15 goal victory, the largest margin of victory for the Owls this season.
The win, the first in program history in three games against the Golden Bears, closes out the nonconference schedule for the Owls.
“This was everything I would have hoped we would have been able to do today,” coach Bonnie Rosen said. “We have worked really hard over the past ten days to respond to that Delaware loss and be ready to move forward and I was hoping it would show up today and we did. From the opening draw we were sharp and confident.”
In Temple’s loss to University of Delaware on March 16, the team was outscored in the first half for the second time this season.
The Owls, who came into play outscoring opponents 65-33 in the first half, took an 11-2 lead into halftime. Williams and Tiernan, whose three goals were her fifth hat-trick of the season, each scored three times in the first 30 minutes.
Ten different players scored for the Owls including sophomore attacker Toni Yuko, who scored her first career goal with less than four minutes remaining.
“I think we’ve just been looking at new ways to utilize our attacking formation,” Tiernan said. “Like the way that we’re positioned just to kind of find out different ways that we can get different people the ball or different ways to move the ball in that formation. So I think that we’ve done multiple different play situations within our formation and that’s been really helping us keeping the ball moving but being able to be versatile on the attack.”
Junior midfielder Morgan Glassford’s team high 10 draw controls helped the team win 16-of-22 draws in the game.
Senior attacker Brenda McDermott did not play after sustaining an ankle injury against Delaware. She is third on the team in points and had started all nine games before Saturday. Williams got her first start of the season in place of McDermott
“I’ve seen a couple opportunities so far this season where I could go in with Brenda or [Rachel] Schwaab, but it wasn’t necessarily as strong a relationship as it needed to be come game day,” Williams said. “So I think we took the last couple of days to learn from each other and kind of get adjusted and adapt to how each other plays.”
After finishing their four game homestand, the Owls begin their third season of Big East play April 2 on the road against the University of Florida, ranked No. 2 in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll.
Evan Easterling can be reached at evan.easterling@temple.edu or on Twitter @Evan_Easterling.
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