Oct. 28, 2009

Box Score

Audio Recap - The River Hawk Report

Sophomore F Khara Roman (Orange, CT) broke a scoreless drought in the 66th minute to lead Merrimack College over No. 23 UMass Lowell, 1-0, Wednesday night in a Northeast-10 Conference women’s soccer clash at Cushing Field.

With the loss, UMass Lowell caped the regular season with an 11-4-3 overall record and a 10-3-2 clip in the NE-10. The River Hawks, however, retain the No. 3 seed (by virtue of their third-place finish) for the NE-10 Tournament and will host No. 6 Stonehill Sunday at 1:00.

Merrimack (13-4-2, 10-4-1 NE-10) clinched the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 Adelphi Sunday.

The match was played on UMass Lowell’s turf field – marking the first-ever soccer match on the turf – due to the torrential downpours.

Merrimack scored the winner when senior F Gabrielle Gramprey (Brockton, MA) broke free down the left flank and crossed just past diving goalkeeper Jamie Gillis (North Billerica, MA) to Roman, who slotted into an empty net.

UMass Lowell outshot the Warriors 20-6 overall and 8-2 on frame as senior G Brittany Gustafson (East Hampton, CT) stopped eight shots. Gillis had one save for the River Hawks.

Both teams had chances early on as UMass Lowell nearly went ahead in the 12th minute when freshman F Taylor Hartmann (Feeding Hills, MA) released senior F Kelly Soper (Auburn, MA) on a break, but Soper’s far post attempt soared just wide right.

Junior M Ashley Alnwick (Groton, MA) nearly gave the Warriors the lead five minutes later, but her header off a cross caromed off the left post and was cleared.

UMass Lowell nearly leveled in the 83rd when Hartmann sent a corner from the right side to the far post, but a header by sophomore F Kaitlyn McHugh (Winchester, MA) went over the bar.