WORCESTER, Mass. – Ren'Cia Rolling (Lansing, Ill.) connected on five three-pointers en route to a career-high 19 points, but the UMass Lowell women's basketball team could not complete the comeback in the 61-54 loss at Holy Cross.
 
Rolling hit three of her triples in the first half and dished out six assists, as Bri Stiers (Denver, Colorado) set a personal best with 12 points, as well. As a team the River Hawks (3-5) combined for nine three pointers to tie their best performance from beyond the arc this season. 
 
"Holy Cross is a quality team to play on the road, and I thought we did what we had to do for the most part," remarked Head Coach Tom Garrick. "We let them get going into the second quarter and it got away from us for a little bit. I was pleasantly surprised with the effectiveness of the lineup we had out there in the fourth to get us going, and that's something we hope to build on throughout each game."

The Crusaders' (5-2) Lauren Manis scored 18 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, including 13 on the defensive glass.
 
Behind two of Linda Svenne's (Riga Latvia) threes, the Rive Hawks built an 8-4 buffer in the opening four minutes. Stiers scored the first bucket of the game, and Svenne regained the lead with her back-to-back makes. 
 
Holy Cross (5-2) closed out the quarter with 14-0 run over the last 5:29 of the first to take a 10-point lead into the second. 
 
Rolling scored the first eight UMass Lowell points in the second period as the visitors got within 25-16. Katherine Smith (Fort Wayne, Ind.) added a bucket and Rolling connected on her third triple of the first half to cut the deficit to 27-21.
However, the Crusaders were able to respond and scored the final seven points and took a 34-21 lead into the intermission.
 
Rolling and Svenne's hot shooting carried into the second half as two more three-pointers cut the Crusader lead to 39-29 less than three minutes into the third. Holy Cross answered with strong defense and built the advantage to 46-29.
 
UMass Lowell would not go away and went on a 13-2 run to bring the score to 48-42 with less than 60 seconds showing on the clock. The run lasted over five minutes, but the Crusaders were able to get the last points of the third and entered the final quarter up 50-42.

The River Hawk run was sparked by four straight points from Brianna Rudolph (Lynn, Mass.), and after the lone Holy Cross bucket Stiers added seven in a row to cut the deficit to 48-40. In the spark, UMass Lowell only missed three shots from the field and grabbed two offensive rebounds. 

Facing  the eight-point deficit to begin the fourth, the River Hawks continued their momentum and cut the score to five points at 52-47 with seven minutes to play. Rolling had her fifth three of the game bring the visitors within 54-50 with the clock showing 6:12, but Holy Cross regained control with four straight.

The River Hawks return home for the first time since early November with a Wednesday night matchup with Colgate on December 5 at 7 p.m.