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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- The UMass Lowell Men's Lacrosse team earned its first America East win in school history with a 12-11 victory at Hartford in Saturday afternoon at Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium. 

With the victory, the River Hawks improve to 3-11 overall (1-4 AE), while Hartford drops to 4-7 overall (1-3 AE) with the loss. 

"We have been close over the last two years, it's great to get our first one (conference win) and I am really proud of the guys," said Head Coach Ed Stephenson. "We did finish and we did the things we needed to do at the end of the game to secure the win, so it was huge."

With 1:41 left, freshman Brandon Beland (Granite Bay, Calif.) scored the game-winner for the River Hawks. Sophomore Grant Lardieri (Ada, Mich.) had a huge game in the UMass Lowell net with 17 saves, including three highlight reel saves in the third quarter in his third win of the season. 

"We have been waiting for this first conference win for a while now, it feels great to get it finally," said Lardieri. "It was a great team effort today, what a great feeling. I was seeing the ball well, the defense played great in front of me, they had my back and it's my job to have theirs as well."

UMass Lowell came out strong with a 4-1 lead, but trailed the Hawks, 6-5 at halftime. The River Hawks finished the game with seven of the final 10 goals in the contest. 

The River Hawks got two goals apiece from Austin Lane (Aurora, Ont.), Jon Phillips (Delta, B.C.), Matt Balter (Albany, N.Y.) and Nicholas Pino (North Andover, Mass.) to pace to the UMass Lowell balanced offensive attack. Pino and junior attackman Sam Klingsporn (Aloha, Ore.) registered a team-high five shots on goal apiece. 

Griffin Feiner led the way for Hartford with a game-high six points and four goals. Ryan Vanderford totaled nine saves in net in the losing effort for the Hawks.

UMass Lowell returns to action on Friday, April 21st against Stony Brook. Game time on Senior Night from Cushing Field Complex on Senior Night is 7:35 p.m.