LOWELL, Mass. -- The UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team (0-2) fell, 9-5, against California (3-2) on a wet and cold Sunday afternoon at Wicked Blue Field. Kendyl Finelli (Southborough, Mass.) lead the squad with three assists and a goal for four points. 

"Both of our goalies were excellent in this game," commented Women's Lacrosse Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "Our defense did the best they could absolutely do in this game and now we just have to start clicking on the offensive side of the ball to give ourselves a chance in these games."

The first 15 minutes of the first half was a defensive stalemate as each team would turn the ball over at least eight times with the River Hawks accounting for six caused turnovers. In net, Renee Gonzalez (Long Valley, N.J.) stopped two shots while Jenny Wilkens of California stopped three shots of her own to keep the game scoreless.

Parker Garrett for the Golden Bears opened the scoring with 14:29 remaining in the first off a pass from Kirsten Swanson that found the back of the net.

Five minutes later, however, Rebecca Idson (East Atlantic Beach, N.Y.) evened the score in the first thanks to a nice feed by none other than Finelli.

California scored three goals in the final four minutes to take a three-goal lead into halftime.

Courtney Barrett (Burlington, Vt.) would assume postion between the posts in the second half for the team in white making an immediate impact as the Golden Bears were awarded a free-position attempt less than a minute into the second, but the keeper stood strong, stopping the shot for her first save of the game.

California scored to make it a three-goal game, but, less than a minute later, Finelli made a move in the circle through two defenders and burried her shot into the back of the net to cut the deficit to three with 27:37 remaining in regulation.

Jane Dudley (Duxbury, Mass.) extended her point streak to seven games dating back to last season's contest against Harvard to cut the Golden Bears' lead to 5-3 after capitalizing on a feed from Austin Trasatti (Doylestown, Pa.).

Senior Taylor Sokol (Hopkinton, Mass.) scored the final two goals of the game for UMass Lowell, but California would capitalize four more times in the second half to come away with a 9-5 victory in the first ever matchup between the two programs.

Gonzalez finished the first half with four saves, while Barrett closed out the second with five. Barrett now only needs 16 saves to become the first player in program history to reach the 500 saves milestone.

The River Hawks return to action on Saturday, March 3 when they travel to Hamilton, N.Y. to take on the Raiders of Colgate.