LOWELL, Mass. -- The UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team (3-7, 0-2) battled in a hard fought contest against America East foe UMBC (9-3, 1-1), but fell, 9-7, on Friday afternoon at Wicked Blue Field. Senior keeper Courtney Barrett (South Burlington, Vt.) stopped 10 shots and junior Kendyl Finelli (Southborough, Mass.) tallied four points off two goals and two assists in the loss.

"This is tough," explained UMass Lowell Women's Lacrosse Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "It's hard to say that when you come out on the losing end of something, but what we've been trying to get through to our team is that it's not about the 'W', it's not about the 'L', it's about the effort, it's about the execution, it's about the energy. We had all three of those things for 60 minutes, and that's something that we haven't had this season yet. If we play like this the rest of the season, I'm looking forward to a really good conference run."

Junior Rebecca Idson (East Atlantic Beach, N.Y) opened the scoring for both sides after taking a pass from Finelli after resetting the offense off of a free position attempt.

UMBC tallied a goal to tie it up with 20:29 left in the first half after Taylor Oliver took a pass from midfield and beat a defender before placing a shot that bounced through the five-hole of Barrett.

After drawing a yellow card on a Retriever defender, senior Austin Trasatti (Doylestown, Pa.) put the River Hawks back up after capitalizing on the free position attempt.

Less than a minute later, however, UMBC won the draw and wasted no time getting the tying goal at the 16:00 minute mark of the first half.

After senior Ashley Horan (Methuen, Mass.) caused a turnover on the defensive end, the River Hawks took off on the offensive. Horan passed the ball up the field to a sprinting Taylor Sokol (Hopkinton, Mass.) who passed it to a sprinting Finelli who finished the fast break and giving the home team a 3-2 lead.

UMBC scored the next two goals to take their first lead of the night at 4-3 with 8:57 remaining in the first half.

UMass Lowell used a little late clock magic after regaining possession with just three seconds remaining on the game clock, Finelli threw a pass in front of the net intended for Sokol, but found a streaking Cameron McKelvin (Westminster, Md.) who shot it past the Retriever keeper and tying the game at four all at the half.

The visitors opened the second on a 3-0 run over the first 12 minutes of the second half.

Finelli and Sokol switched positions with Sokol running the offense from behind the net and Finelli lurking around the front of the net turned out to be exactly what the River Hawks needed to stop the Retriever run. Finelli buried the pass from Sokol to make it a 7-5 game with 14:49 remaining in regulation.

Trasatti scored her second of the game after beating her defender and running straight to the net and shooting one past the UMBC keeper, cutting the UMBC lead to just one with 13:53 remaining in the second.

The visitors scored the next two to regain their three-goal lead at the 6:21 minute mark of the second.

Sophomore Hana Caster (North Attleboro, Mass.) capitalized on a free position attempt to score the final River Hawk goal of the contest.

Of note, the four points from Finelli increased her program-leading scoring streak to 10 games. The nine goals scored for the Retrievers was the fewest the River Hawks have allowed against their America East foe in three contests.

The Mill City squad returns to action when they travel to New Hampshire on Wednesday, April 4 for a 4 p.m. opening draw.