UMass Lowell Athletics

River Hawk student-athletes continued to thrive in the classroom in 2023-24, having now recorded 23 straight semesters with a GPA over 3.0. As a whole, the department boasted it's best ever GPA in the spring of 2024 at 3.329. The women's lacrosse (3.561 GPA) and men's ice hockey teams (3.453 GPA) earned the department's Bob Griffin Academic Awards for posting the highest team grade point average over the course of the academic year. 

A total of 43 River Hawks earned All-Academic team honors, while Anthony Blunt (Crownsville, Md.) of men's basketball, Hunter Marion (Templeton, Mass.) of men's cross country and Sarah Ross (Agawam, Mass.) of women's track & field each earned the prestigious Elite 18 Award for having the highest GPA among the participants competing in their sport's conference championship. Additionally, Alissia de Vries (The Hague, Netherlands) was named the 2023 America East Fall Scholar-Athlete.

Two graduating River Hawk student-athletes were also honored during an awards celebration as part of the 2024 UMass Lowell Commencement festivities.
 
Emma Hennessy (Marlborough, Mass.) of the women's soccer team received the Chancellor's Medal for Student Service, which is awarded to graduating seniors who have made outstanding contributions to the university. Additionally, Loucas Costeas (Nicosia, Cyprus) of the men's soccer team was honored with the University Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest cumulative GPA among graduating student-athletes.

MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY / 

TRACK & FIELD

The UMass Lowell men’s cross country team ran strong to begin the 2023 season. The team earned multiple top finishes, including the Orange 8k at Pre-Nationals. The team then made school and conference history, becoming the first program in the America East to four-peat at the conference championship since 1997. The River Hawks boasted the individual conference winner and had two All-Conference First Team runners, as well as three All-Conference Second Team honorees. After claiming its fourth straight title, the team traveled to the Bronx to compete at the NCAA Northeast Regional, where the River Hawks finished 12th.

The UMass Lowell men’s outdoor track and field team won the America East Championship for the second consecutive year. Along with the team conference championship victory, the squad collected three individual champions and a whopping 12 all-conference honorees. Joe Young punched his ticket to the NCAA Northeast Regional in the steeplechase at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, and James Kotowski broke his own school record twice in the javelin, earning a NCAA Preliminaries appearance of his own. He then went on to compete in the 2024 US Olympic Trials where he finished as the fifth-best javelin thrower in the nation (75.69m). 

WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD

The indoor season was all about Kenzie Doyle (Swansea, Mass.), who started off the season with a school-record time of 15:27.42 in the 5K at BU, qualifying herself for the 2024 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championship. She then went on to set personal records in the mile and 3K in her next two meets, before her stellar performance at the 2024 America East Indoor Championships, where she became an individual conference champion in the mile, 3K and 5K. For her efforts, she was awarded the America East Female Most Outstanding Track Performer Award, as well as the America East Female Coaches’ Award, which is given to the student-athlete that earns the most points for their team as an individual. Following this performance, she shifted her focus to the NCAA Championships, co-hosted by UMass Lowell. In the 5K race, she claimed 14th place and Second-Team All-American honors against a highly competitive field. 

FIELD HOCKEY

The UMass Lowell field hockey team soared to new heights in 2023. The squad started strong right away, earning multiple nine-goal victories and claiming its first ever Kennedy Cup by defeating No. 18 Massachusetts, 2-1. The River Hawks entered the national rankings for the first time in Division I program history just a week later, checking in at No. 18 in the country, and would stay in the top 20 for the remainder of the regular season, reaching as high as No. 17. The team closed out the regular season with four straight conference wins to capture its first America East regular-season championship and No. 1 seed for the postseason tournament. The River Hawks set multiple Division I program records during the season, including total wins (14) and conference wins (7). The team’s goals per game and scoring average (3.13) both ranked second in the country, while the defense was also a force, finishing fourth in the nation for scoring margin (1.86). They capped off their historic season with six All-Conference honorees and a nod for Coaching Staff of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. Alissia de Vries also became the program’s first Division I All-American. 

MEN'S BASKETBALL

The UMass Lowell men's basketball first made noise around the college basketball landscape early in the 2023-24 season after coming seconds away from sweeping a pair of Power 5 opponents in a span of three days. The team defeated ACC foe Georgia Tech, 74-71, on Nov. 14, sealing the program’s second ever win against a Power 5 squad. The rest of the season also gave the Mill City a lot to remember, including surpassing the 20-win milestone for the second consecutive season and matching last year’s program-record 11 America East victories. The team picked up an important victory against Bryant on Senior Night to secure its second consecutive second-place seeding for the America East Playoffs. The team then knocked off No. 7 UMBC and No. 3 Bryant in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, to earn its third bid to the America East Playoffs championship game in the last four years. Three River Hawks earned America East All-Conference honors to close out the year.

MORE ATHLETIC HIGHLIGHTS 

Many other River Hawks also impressed throughout the year, starting with women's soccer knocking off top-ranked Binghamton on the road to clinch a spot in the team's second ever America East Championship title game. Women's lacrosse also had its best year yet, earning a postseason berth for the first time. Softball then followed with an underdog run through its postseason, all the way to the championship game.

The Kennedy Cup Challenge was established in the fall of 2018 and is awarded annually to the team with the most wins in the cumulative season series between the UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst. John Kennedy is a longtime supporter of the UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst athletic programs. Kennedy holds degrees from both schools, Lowell Technological Institute ('70, H '16) and UMass Amherst ('76), with degrees in Mathematics (BS) and Accounting (MS), respectively. Kennedy also received an honorary degree from UMass Lowell in 2016.

The teams played a total of 14 events against each other during the 2018-19 season. The UMass Lowell men's soccer team won (1-0) the inaugural game in the series on Friday, August 24, 2018 against the Minutemen in the season opener at Cushing Field Complex. UMass Lowell won the season series, 8-6 in 14 contests during the 2018-19 season.

With this year's cup going to Amherst, the Minutemen hold just a slight, 3-2 lead in annual series wins since its inception. UMass Lowell field hockey highlighted the challenge this year, though, defeating the UMass Amherst for the first time ever.