The Pride got another boost of confi dence from role players at yesterday’s game, as Kimberly Hillier’s four-point second half allowed the team to break open a tight game late and beat the University of Massachusetts, 10-8, for its second consecutivevictory.

“Knowing that we were coming into the second half down by one goal, you have to have one or two people step it up and say ‘come on we can still do this, were still in it’ and we had that leadership all over the fi eld,” Hillier said. Stepping it up would be an understatement for the Pride, who held UMass to just two goals in the second half after trailing by two at the end of the fi-rst.

Although Pride player Heather Albro got her team on the scoreboard first, the Minutewomen had a stronger start to the contest with four consecutive goals, two by Samantha Sepulveda and two by Kaytlin McCormick.

The Pride wasn’t ready to let the game slip away that fast. The team fought back with back-toback goals from Hillier and senior attack Catherine Guerriere and another from Albro.

“Its hard to come back and play hard and really never give up and that’s been are problem all year,” goalie Maisie Osteen said. “But today we really turned it around and fi gured out what we had to do to get back in there and we just never gave up.”

“The Pride started the season 0-4, and had a diffi cult time adapting to a new roster of 10 fresh faces. After ending last season 14-4 and 6-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association, the veterans on the team weren’t used to losing.

“I think that it was a reality check,” head coach Shelley Klaes Bawcombe said. “I think that the fi rst couple of losses brought us back to reality. We are a new team and we can’t just assume that anything is going to happen. Before all they wanted was the win and they didn’t remember how to get that win. I think it’s more about being comfortable and being OK with working for the win.”

Coming into the second half, the Pride showed just how much it was willing to work for the win and came out with four consecutive goals, one by Albro and the others by Hillier. Albro was another top competitor for the Pride who came away from the contest with three goals, a game-high four caused turnovers and three ground balls.

The Minutewomen tried to come back in the half with an unassisted goal by Sepulveda at the 7:49 mark and one last attempt on a free position shot by Kathleen Typadis with 2:44 remaining. Hillier, the Pride’s dominant junior attack, wasn’t ready to end the game with just a one goal lead as she sped down the field for her last score.

Playing against an aggressive team was just one of the Pride’s challenges in the game. It also had to play against bad calls by the officials.

“I think our team did a great job of adjusting to the officials today, they were calling the game really tight and making a lot of off ball calls,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. ” We talked about what we had control of and what we were doing on the field and whatever hits they were going to give us we just had to take and move on.”