LOWELL, Mass. – Emily Wright (Avon, Conn.) scored a career-high three goals, as the UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team fell to the Colorado Buffaloes, 17-7, Friday afternoon at Wicked Blue Field.

"I am really proud of our girls, we were at a turning point after last game, and they responded very well to what the coaches were telling them this week," said Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "We finally broke our six-goal curse, we had girls had break out games out. Erin (Hatch) was a maniac out there and added her first career goal. Even though there was a solid margin of loss, I'm glad the girls are seeing more than that, and seeing that it was a good overall game."

Wright opened up the scoring for the River Hawks (0-10) with 15:50 remaining in the first half, using a spin move to create space behind the net, and fired a shot to beat Paige Soenksen.

The Buffaloes (5-3) used a quick start to take a 5-0 lead before Wright's goal, and took a 12-1 into the final minute of play in the first half.

Devon McKercher (Vestal, N.Y.) scored with seven seconds left on the clock, taking a pass from Taylor Sokol (Hopkinton, Mass.) and one-timing a low shot into the back of the net.

UMass Lowell scored the first three goals of the second half, starting off with Wright's second of the game. With just under three minutes gone in the half the midfielder sent a low bouncing shot from outside the 8-meter arc the beat Sophia Gambitsky.

Wright completed the hat-trick over three minutes later at 23:28, taking a pass from McKercher and sending into the twine for her 10th goal of the season. McKercher scored her second of the game 1:26 after Wright's strike with 22:02 on the clock. The Vetstal, N.Y. native is tied for third on the team with seven goals.

After a run of five straight Colorado goals, Micaela Sanborn (Chelmsford, Mass.) scored on a free-position shot with 3:35 left regulation.

Erin Hatch (Billerica, Mass.) scored her first career goal with 40 seconds left in the game. The midfielder made a juke move at around the fan to get around a defender, then sent a low rocket into the left corner from inside the arc.

The Buffaloes were led by Darby Kiernan's six points (4g, 2g), Katie Macleay added six points as well, scoring three times and dishing out three helpers. Soenksen made four saves in the first half for the win. Gambitsky and Annee O'Connor combined to play the second half.

Courtney Barrett (South Burlington, Vt.) made nine saves in the loss, upping her total to 102 on the season. She also had a team-high three caused turnovers, and also recorded three ground balls.

The River Hawks travel to Binghamton for their second America East contest on March 29, to take on the Bearcats at 12 p.m.