LOWELL, Mass. -- The UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team fell in their America East conference opener to No. 1 Stony Brook, 20-7, on Saturday afternoon. The loss moves the River Hawks to 2-6 overall and 0-1 in conference play, while the Seawolves move to 8-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

"We looked at this game as an opportunity to play the best - the best players, the best coaches, the best at everything - and we wanted to be excited about every little thing we did against the best players in the country," explained Women's Lacrosse Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "I think we started out doing that and celebrated every little mini victory we had. We lost sight of it a little bit in the first half, but I think in the second half we had a little bit of a renewed sense of getting that effort back with the energy and confidence we showed."

Taylor Sokol (Hopkinton, Mass.) lead the squad with her third straight hat trick, while Kendyl Finelli (Southborough, Mass.) tallied three assists to extend her team-leading scoring streak to eight games. The seven goals scored was three more than last season's total and marked the most the River Hawks have ever tallied against Stony Brook.

Erin Hatch (Billerica, Mass.) opened the scoring in the game less than two minutes in after taking a pass from Finelli and sneaking it past the Stony brook keeper and give the River Hawks an early 1-0 lead.

The Seawolves went on a 4-0 run to take a 4-1 lead with 22:54 remaining in the first before Sokol tallied her first goal of the contest off a pass from Finelli with 21:28 remaining in the first.

After the visitors scored less than a minute later, Paige MacEachern (Lynnfield, Mass.) made it a 5-3 game thanks to another stellar pass from Finelli with 19:17 remaining in the first half.

Sokol tallied her second of the game to silence a 7-0 run from Stony Brook that made it a 13-4 game with 5:46 remaining in the first half.

After the first 30 minutes, Stony Brook took a 16-4 lead into the half.

Stony Brook scored the first three goals of the second to extend their lead to 19-4 with 13:24 remaining in the second.

Sokol recorded her hat trick with 8:24 remaining in regulation after corralling a bobbling pass and burried it into the back of the net.

Kaylan DiModugno (Deer Park, N.Y.) tallied back-to-back free position goals to take to make it a 19-7 game with 2:52 remaining in the second.

Stony Brook tallied the final goal of the afternoon to come away with the 20-7 victory.

Courtney Barrett (South Burlington, Vt.) and Renee Gonzalez (Long Valley, N.J.) combined to stop eight shots in the loss.

The River Hawks return to action on Wednesday, March 28 when they travel to take on first time foe Central Connecticut. Opening draw is scheduled for 5 p.m.