The UMass Lowell women's varsity eight rowing team getting a chance to strut its stuff on one of the sport's biggest stages.
 
“We're ready,” says UMass Lowell Rowing Head Coach Veronika Platzter. “There really isn't anything more I can do, except not screw it up.”
 
The River Hawks competing, this weekend, in the NCAA Division II Eastern Qualifier at the Aberdeen Dad Vails Regatta on the Schuykill River in Philadelphia, Pa., a regatta inside a regatta.  The heats will be held on Friday, the finals on Saturday.  UMass Lowell is hoping to earn at at-large bid, not a team bid, to the NCAA championships.
 
To get to the NCAA championships the boat will have to cover the two-thousand meter course in a time close to the seven-minute mark.  That will not be easy, but it is doable according to the coach.
 
“Mentally, these guys are ready to give it a go,” says Platzer after a workout on the Merrimack River in Lowell on Wednesday morning.  “It's beautiful how it's come together, this is right where we want to be.”
 
The varsity eight led by junior coxswain Rachel Paquette (Dracut, Mass.) includes sophomore Jenna Bueno (Methuen, Mass.,) sophomore Rachel Piela (Amherst, Mass.,) senior Kim Haskins (Taunton, Mass.,) senior Melinda Neale (Plaistow, N. H.,) senior Brianna Trainor (Pelham, N. H.,) senior Julia Jennings (Lowell, Mass.,) junior Megan McLaughlin (Haverhill, Mass.,) and junior Bridget Mahoney (Dracut, Mass.,)
 
A year ago the varsity eight grabbed reached the Grand Final at the Dad Vails Regatta, but went no further. The previous year, the first time UMass Lowell had entered the event, the River Hawk boat finished “dead last.”
 
“At the end of the day, they are the ones that will decide their fate,” says Platzer.  “This has been four years in the making, why not us.”