Cole O'Hara and Michael Hrabal powering UMass' second-half surge

AMHERST, Massachusetts — In their final game before the holiday break, the UMass Minutemen lost to Boston University at home, dropping their record to 8-7-2. At that point, they had just two wins from nine conference games and with a difficult second-half schedule ahead, and seemed listless.

They were 20th in the Pairwise because a few of their wins were against teams that got off to hot starts (many of which stayed hot all season long), but after an NCAA tournament appearance last year, it wasn't where they wanted to be.

"Goaltending was really inconsistent early, and our scoring was too," UMass coach Greg Carvel told Elite Prospects. "So, first half of the year, first third, from night to night, I didn't know if we were gonna get goals, I didn't know if we were gonna get defense, I didn't