LOWELL, Mass. – Sophomore Karli Penrod (Seaford, Del.) netted a pair of goals to push the UMass Lowell field hockey team (10-7, 3-3 AE) to a 4-1 victory over America East foe UC Davis (4-12, 1-5 AE) in the regular season finale on Sunday afternoon at Wicked Blue Field.
 
"We came out, obviously, going a goal down, we like to make things a little bit dramatic, but I loved how we responded," said Head Coach Shannon LeBlanc. "I thought we played good possession hockey. I thought we had a really good structure today and played with some speed. There's of course always a concern when you have a two-game weekend with a big win over a ranked opponent so I'm glad we didn't have the Sunday scaries."
 
With the win, UMass Lowell has finished the regular season tied for third in the America East standings. Due to tie-breaking procedures, the RIver Hawks will take the No. 5 seed for the America East Championship and will battle No. 4 Vermont in the first round on Thursday, November 7 at 2 p.m. at top-ranked UAlbany's Alumni Turf.
 
UMass Lowell finishes 2024 perfect at home with a 9-0 record at Wicked Blue Field.
 
Junior Madison Leeper (East Amherst, N.Y.) and senior Maxine Van Havere (Wilrijk, Belgium) rounded out the scoring, while freshman Karlijn Kerkhof (Rotterdam, Netherlands) and sophomore Florine Gerrits (Amstelveen, Netherlands) added helpers.
 
In the cage, graduate student Christina Calandra (Manchester, Mass.) made one save, while sophomore Marie Oliemans (Driebergen, Netherlands) made two in relief.
 
UMass Lowell earned a pair of corner attempts in the opening minutes of action, resulting in two opportunities for graduate student Alissia de Vries (The Hague, Netherlands). de Vries' first bid was saved, while her second was just wide.
 
However, the Aggies responded with the game's opening tally in the fifth minute, as Katie Kim capitalized on a feed from Liselotte Koop to take a 1-0 lead.
 
The River Hawks' fourth corner of the quarter resulted in another flurry of opportunities, sparked by an initial shot from de Vries. Penrod controlled the rebound, but her secondary shot was again steered away.
 
UMass Lowell came out strong in the second, and were rewarded for it on the scoreboard. On their first corner of the quarter, Leeper deflected a ball from Kerkhof into the back of the cage to even the contest at 1-1 in the 21st minute.
 
The River Hawks then tallied two unanswered goals to cruise into the break with a 3-1 advantage. The first came on a corner in the 25th minute, as Van Havere fired a second-chance rocket past the UC Davis keeper on a pass from Gerrits. Just over a minute later, the hosts added to their lead when Penrod scored her first goal of the game after she dribbled the ball into the circle before ripping a laser into the bottom left corner of the cage.
 
Coming out of halftime, the River Hawks added to their lead in the 31st minute, as Penrod netted her eighth goal of the season and second tally of the contest on a cage-front rebound to take a 4-1 lead in the third quarter.
 
UMass Lowell outshot UC Davis, 8-2, in the third quarter, and nearly added to their lead yet again in the 44th minute. Sophomore Christina Wagner (Cicero, N.Y.) fired a shot on goal, but was denied on a diving save to keep UC Davis within three.
 
Despite being outshot, 2-1, in the final quarter, the River Hawks held on to a 4-1 lead to close out the regular season.