LOWELL, Mass. – The UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team begins its inaugural season with a matchup at Massachusetts on February 14 at 11 a.m.

"There is a very positive vibe around the girls right now. The team is genuinely excited to open up our season on Saturday," said Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "You can feel it in the team, you can feel it in the coaches. It's an opportunity for them to start showing the world, their parents, their friends that they're ready to go."

The River Hawks enter their first season in Division I and the America East conference as a squad with 21 freshmen, two juniors and one sophomore, which Medeiros sees as a challenge, but also a learning experience.

"The biggest focus for us as coaches, and hopefully the team leaders, is to keep the team focused and enjoy this opportunity. We're starting from scratch with no bar to set our standards towards. We're just trying to make sure we're going as hard as we can and learning along the way, along with having as much fun as possible."

GOALS

"The goals for the season are to get through our first 17 games as a program competing the hardest we can, staying focused and staying positive. We also still have to have fun, if we're going into a game scared, or if we're going into a halftime down by four or five goals, we don't want to just finish the game out just to finish it, we want to play hard and try to fight. We need to fight, I think that is something that if we can get our kids to do, just fight all season, that will be a huge victory for us. "

Medeiros realizes that the youth of her team could provide growing pains, but help the team and each individual down the road.

"For me as a coach, it's important for our staff to not forget that we are asking 21 freshman to act like upperclassmen, to be fine-tuned leaders, and to make all the right decisions. I think that keeping that in mind, I'd have to say what's impressed me the most is the fact that we've come so far and worked so hard and really have developed a lot of leaders at a very young age. "

LEADERSHIP

Medeiros and her staff named three freshmen captains prior to the season: goalkeeper Courtney Barrett (South Burlington, Vt.), attacker Jesse Jay (Amherst, N.H.), and midfielder Emily Wright (Avon, Conn.).

"We have a good core group of girls that provide in varying different ways a lot of strong leadership, whether it be vocal on the field communication types of leadership or if it's just sort of kids that you can tell that other girls look up to from a playing perspective. Our three captains have been able to shine the brightest in these areas, but we have a number of other girls who could fill that captain role on or off the field."

Medeiros sees the improvement of all her players as leaders on and off the field.

"We're really lucky to have a lot of girls who have done extremely well in the classroom so they can be leaders off the field, but in addition are growing leaps and bounds on the field as leaders."

THE SCHEDULE

"We start out really strong against Massachusetts and Boston College, then we play two other really strong conference opponents in Stony Brook and Albany, in addition to all the other strong opponents we're playing: Harvard, Brown, New Hampshire, Vermont, etc."

"We have a tough schedule this year and I think it will be really easy for us to go into one of those games, get down by a few, then hang our heads and sort of wait for next year for everything to come together. It's keeping the big picture in mind, while also having some fun along the way and really learning the small lessons that come with being a new squad. "

The River Hawks play their home-opener against BC on February 18. Their first America East game comes against Albany at Wicked Blue Field on February 21, as part of a doubleheader with the men's lacrosse team. UMass Lowell will have a four-game homestand from March 14 to March 27.