LOWELL, Mass. – Senior Ava Clarke (Hopkinton, Mass.) registered a pair of goals to help propel the UMass Lowell field hockey team (1-0) to a 6-0 victory against Merrimack (0-1) in the 2025 season opener on Friday evening at a rainy Wicked Blue Field.
 
With the decision, the River Hawks extend their home win streak to 10 games dating back to the start of the 2024 season.
 
"We are always happy with a shutout win with five different goal scorers," said Head Coach Shannon LeBlanc. "We put together some really great passing sequences, which resulted in a lot of attacking opportunities. We need to focus on being more disciplined in certain areas of our game, but overall I am proud of the team for continuing the winning tradition on our home turf. We are looking forward to Sunday to build off of today's performance."
 
Clarke matched a personal best with her two scores after missing all of last season. Four other River Hawks each added one goal in the contest, including sophomore Audrey Carter (Dover, N.H.) and freshman Haley Wernig (Franklin, Mass.), who each tallied their first career goal in the outing. Senior Madison Leeper (Amherst, N.H.) and sophomore Karlijn Kerkhof (Rotterdam, Netherlands) rounded out the group of scorers, while junior Florine Gerrits (Amstelveen, Netherlands) logged an assist.
 
Freshman Veerle Mous (Breda, Netherlands) earned the start in the cage and played the entire 60 minutes, but the staunch River Hawk defense held the Warriors without a shot on the night.
 
The River Hawks attacked right from the first whistle, tallying their first goal on their first corner attempt of the new season less than two minutes into the contest. On that play, Kerkhof sent a hard ball towards the post for the final tip from Wernig, who netted her first career goal.
 
The home team continued to pressure, as Gerrits intercepted a pass at the 25-yard line in the fifth minute and dribbled into the circle before pushing a pass ahead to Clarke for the redirect into the far corner. Three minutes later, Clarke was back in range, this time firing a reverse stick laser unassisted through traffic to stretch the difference to 3-0.
 
UMass Lowell continued to maintain possession on its offensive end and would add one more goal in the first half in the 20^th minute, when Kerkhof fended off two Warriors to get a pass into the center of the circle for Carter to fire on target for her first career goal and give the home team a 4-0 advantage heading into the break.
 
In the third quarter, the River Hawks took advantage of another turnover in their offensive end, this time resulting in a put-back goal from Leeper, who finished the ball off the pads of the opposing keeper to make it 5-0.
 
The final goal of the contest came in the 48^th minute when Kerkhof converted on a penalty stroke opportunity.
 
The River Hawks are back in action at home on Sunday, August 31 when they host No. 14 Massachusetts in a Kennedy Cup clash at 3 p.m.