NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – Freshman Natalie Choate (Spencerport, N.Y.) and sophomore Samantha Blair (West Islip, N.Y.) each tallied hat-tricks to propel the UMass Lowell women's lacrosse team to a dominating 12-5 victory over Iona on Saturday afternoon at Mazzella Field.

"Overall I'm really pleased with today's performance," stated head coach Lisa Miller. "We had a strong start to the game, taking charge and setting the pace early. The defensive end played well, shutting them down and generating some of those much-needed turnovers."
 
Freshman goaltender Madison Grazidei (Bayport, N.Y.) matched her career-high of 13 saves for the third time this season, picking up seven in the first stretch. With the victory the River Hawks improve to 2-4 on the season, while the Gaels drop to 3-4.
 
The River Hawks set the tone for the game, striking off an unassisted goal by senior captain Cameron McKelvin (Westminster, Md.) only 56 seconds into the outing, followed by McKelvin's second point of the day off a pass to Blair for a 2-0 lead at the 23-minute mark.
 
Countering two minutes later, Iona's Gabrielle Thornton would feed a pass to teammate Leah Miller for the Gaels first point of the contest at 21:17. Riding their offensive high, Iona would go on the attack for the next three minutes, rattling off shots as Grazidei picked up four consecutive saves to keep the home team from advancing.
 
Freshman Grace Hansen (Stamford, Conn.) added back-to-back goals to spark the River Hawks best run of the contest as Choate went unassisted with Blair snagging a pass from midfielder Abby McLaughlin (Walpole, Mass.) for a five-point lead with 8:09 to play in the first.
 
Iona's Megan Collins would end the River Hawk streak off a free position opportunity at 6:43, but the visitors would counter with two more goals from McKelvin and Choate over the final minutes for an 8-2 buffer heading into the second half.
 
An early goal from Iona to start the second wouldn't phase the River Hawks as Anna Bauter (Dexter, N.Y.) recorded her first goal of the game off an assist from Blair, bringing the score to 9-3 with 27:13 to play.
 
The duo of Blair and McLaughlin would strike again as Blair picked up her third goal of the outing for her second-consecutive hat-trick. Choate would record her first-career hat-trick only three minutes later to force an Iona timeout with 20:58 in regulation as the River Hawks jumped out on a 11-3 lead.
 
With the timeout providing an opportunity for the home team to regroup, Iona would post two goals to trim the gap, 11-5, holding the River Hawks to a scoreless seven minutes. Freshman Izzy Liquori (Agawam, Mass.) notched her 10th goal of the season to end the Iona run with 11:59 on the clock.

Both teams would go on the offense for the remaining ten minutes, with the River Hawks seeing shots from McKelvin, Choate and Liquori but neither team would be able to make a final connection, ending in a 12-5 River Hawk victory.

Blair dominated the stat sheet with three goals, two assists and three caused turnovers, while Liquori snagged a career-high eight draw controls to tie senior Hana Caster (North Attleboro, Mass.) and graduate-student Kelly Moran (Newfields, N.H.) in individual game leaders.
 
Up next the squad will continue their spring break road trip with a visit to Marist on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Tenney Stadium, before welcoming Sacred Heart on Saturday in a 1 p.m. matchup at Cushing Field.