HANOVER, N.H. – Sophomore Karlijn Kerkhof (Rotterdam, Netherlands) tallied a pair of goals in less than a minute late in the third quarter to propel the UMass Lowell field hockey team (6-5) to a 4-3 victory in comeback fashion at Dartmouth (2-7) on Sunday afternoon.
 
"Gritty win today," said Head Coach Shannon LeBlanc. "We made it hard for ourselves by allowing some unanswered goals, however, we stayed the course, followed the game plan, and earned really important corners at the critical moments and finished them. All around great team effort. I loved our road warrior mentality this weekend."
 
The performance marked Kerkhof's third, multi-goal game of the season. Senior Madison Leeper (East Amherst, N.Y.) and junior Christina Wagner (Cicero, N.Y.) each tallied a goal in the win, as well. On the other end of the field, freshman goalkeeper Veele Mous (Breda, Netherlands) registered nine saves.
 
The River Hawks went to work right away, earning a corner less than two minutes into play, but Kerkhof's first shot went wide. The Big Green tested Mous minutes later, but the first-year keeper batted the ball out of the air to extinguish the opportunity.
 
In the 10^th minute, the River Hawks rushed into their offensive 25^th with Leeper receiving the ball on the run and charging up to the opposing keeper, beating her with a turnaround move and shooting on an open cage to put her side on top, 1-0.
 
Just over two minutes later, the River Hawks worked the ball back into the circle with Wagner dribbling to the baseline before sending a shot across the front of the cage and into the far corner, stretching the lead to 2-0 in the 13^th minute. However, the home team responded in the 14^th minute, when despite staunch defense denying initial chances, Gemma Franco was able to finish a putback to cut the difference in half, 2-1, through the first complete quarter.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Big Green earned three consecutive corners. Mous and the River Hawk defense quickly thwarted the first two chances, but Dartmouth's Ruby Walsh redirected a pass from Ella Bowman on the third attempt in the 33^rd minute to take their first lead of the day at 3-2.
 
The River Hawks did not stop attacking, though, converting on two corners in less than a minute to jump right back in front. On both plays, junior Florine Gerrits (Amstelveen, Netherlands) inserted to freshman Rena Pistilli (Lambaré, Paraguay), whose stick-stops set up hard shots from Kerkhof that rang the back of the cage to make it 4-3 in the 44^th minute.
 
The Big Green tried to knot it up again in the fourth quarter with three corners and three shots, but UMass Lowell hung on to secure the victory.
 
The River Hawks return home to host Vermont on October 10 at 3 p.m. at Wicked Blue Field.