LOWELL, Mass. -- Sophomore Jake Lining (Rochester, Mich.) scored a career-high three goals to pace the UMass Lowell Men's Lacrosse team in the 12-7 loss to Holy Cross on Tuesday night in non-conference play at Cushing Field Complex.

The River Hawks drop to 1-1 overall, while the Crusaders won their first game of the year to improve to 1-2 overall.

"It was a frustrating game, we had a lot of opportunities coming down that ended up turning into two-goal swings," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Ed Stephenson. "Where we had a good opportunity, where we might have not made the right decision and didn't have great spacing. I thought we did a better job in the second half defensively, holding them to five, but it took us too long to get started tonight offensively."

UMass Lowell scored five goals in the fourth quarter to keep things close on goals by Dan Cozzi (Reading, Mass.), two tallies by Lining, Cory Highfield (Georgetown, Ont.) and Domenic Giachello (Somers, Conn.). Giachello finished the night with three points (1g,2a).

UMass Lowell trailed 7-1 at halftime, after Sean Mullaney scored two goals to place the Crusaders in the opening quarter. 

Senior attackman Ryan Morrison (Uxbridge, Ont.) opened the scoring in the game with his third tally of the year just 51 seconds into the game for the River Hawks. 

Senior goalie Grant Lardieri (Ada, Mich.) earned the start for the River Hawks, making four first-half saves, while freshman Matt Murakami (Long Grove, Ill.) came in for UMass Lowell in relief, stopping three shots in the second half. Holy Cross' Jonathan Tesoro stopped seven shots in the win for the Crusaders.

Freshman face-off midfielder Liam McDonough (Groton, Mass.) won 14-of-20 (70%) in the losing effort for UMass Lowell.

Kevin Kodzis recorded a game-high seven points (5g,2a) in the win for the Crusaders.

The River Hawks finish up their three-game season-opening homestand on Saturday, February 23rd vs. Siena. Game time from Cushing Field Complex is 2 p.m.

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