CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team (3-11, 0-4 AE) fell by a 15-8 margin at Harvard on Wednesday evening, despite hat tricks from both Paige MacEachern (Lynnfield, Mass.) and Kristina Keith (East Kingston, N.H.).
 
"Overall, I'm just really proud of our fight today," said Head Coach Carissa Medeiros. "We asked them to celebrate the little, tiny victories, and I've never heard our team be so excited for ground balls, draw controls and saves. They were loud and contagious, and they kept that energy and spirit for the whole game. That gave us the energy in the second half to start chipping away. We were executing better and finding some good looks, and at first, we weren't connecting, but we kept plugging away, and I'm just really proud of them for that."
 
Harvard jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but it looked like the River Hawks were poised to make a comeback, as Keith and Hana Caster (North Attleboro, Mass.) each tallied a quick free position goal to bring UMass Lowell to within one.
 
The Crimson went on a six-goal run to close out the half, though, leading 9-2 after the first.
 
The second half was a different story, with the teams matching up evenly. Harvard kept its momentum at first, scoring the initial three goals of the half until MacEachern notched her first tally of the game at 20:02, assisted by Cameron McKelvin (Westminster, Md.).
 
Harvard scored one more before the River Hawks went on a three-goal run, with goals from Keith, MacEachern and Jane Dudley (Duxbury, Mass.).
 
MacEachern would tally her hat trick at 6:07, and Keith would earn hers with 40 seconds left in the game. Even though the game ended in the 15-8 defeat, the River Hawks were able to match the Crimson's second-half goal total.
 
Renee Gonzalez (Long Valley, N.J.) had nine saves, while Caster notched four ground balls. UMass Lowell dominated on draw controls, tallying 16 to Harvard's nine, led by Gabby Torain (Glen Burnie, Md.) with seven and Kelly Moran (Newfields, N.H.) with six. McKelvin had a multi-assist game for the third time this season.
 
This Saturday, the River Hawks celebrate their 10 seniors on Senior Day at Wicked Blue Field as they welcome Vermont at 1 p.m. in their final home game of the season.