LOWELL, Mass. -- Hana Caster (North Attleboro, Mass.) and Kendyl Finelli (Southborough, Mass.) each recorded their first hat trick of the season to lead UMass Lowell (1-4) to its first victory of the season over Wagner (3-3) on Sunday afternoon at Wicked Blue Field. Keeper Courtney Barrett (South Burlington, Vt.) and Renee Gonzalez (Long Valley, N.J.) teamed up to stop six shots in the winning effort.

"We had a lot more connections today," explained Women's Lacrosse Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "We've been working on trying to fix things on both sides of the ball. Defensively we've been playing really, really well and that continued today. We were a little bit more aggressive on 50-50 balls, but I think we are hungrier for the ball. Overall, every game we've been improving little by little, and this one resulted in a win and it feels good."

The River Hawks opened the scoring less than four minutes into the contest when Finelli found teammate Cameron McKelvin (Westminster, Md.) inside the eight-meter arc who turned and placed it perfectly past the Seahawk keeper to give the River Hawks an early 1-0 lead.

Over the next seven minutes, Caster and Austin Trasatti (Doylestown, Pa.) each scored to make it a 3-0 game with 19:19 to go in the first half.

Wagner cut the River Hawk lead to two just four minutes later when Erin Kerstetter scored off a free position attempt.

The Mill City squad held the visitors to just one shot on goal over the final 15 minutes of the first half to take a two goal lead into halftime, 3-1.

Wagner scored two minutes into the second to make it a one goal game until Rebecca Idson (East Atlantic Beach, N.Y.) capitalized on a great pass from Kaylan DiModugno (Deer Park, N.Y.) to regain the two-goal River Hawk lead at 4-2 with 24:52 remaining in regulation.

After a Wagner goal made it a one goal game, Caster and Jane Dudley (Duxbury, Mass.) scored in a span of three minutes for the River Hawks to, again, regain a two goal lead at 6-3 with just over 20 minutes remaining in the contest.

The River Hawks went on another 2-1 run, which included Caster recording her first hat trick of the season, to take a four-goal lead at 8-4 with 14:54 remaining in regulation. 

Wagner responded with a three goal run of their own to cut the UMass Lowell lead to just one with under nine minutes to go in regulation.

The home squad settled themselves and scored two goals in 16 seconds, including Erin Hatch (Billerica, Mass.) tallying goal number one of the season, to extend the lead to 10-7 at 6:56 in the second.

Finelli recorded her first hat trick of the season after capitalizing on a free position attempt which made it 11-8 with 4:13 remaining.

The River Hawks hung on for the victory after Wagner made it a two goal game with under three minutes remaining in regulation.

UMass Lowell returns to action on Saturday, March 18 when they host the Sacred Heart Pioneers with the opening draw scheduled for 1 p.m. at Wicked Blue Field.