MANCHESTER, N.H. – Junior Kristina Katsikis (Hanover, Mass.) scored two goals, but it was not enough as the Saint Anselm College field hockey team fell to fourth-ranked UMass Lowell, 6-3, Wednesday afternoon at Grappone Stadium.
The Hawks fall to 2-7 on the season, including 0-3 in Northeast-10 play, while the River Hawks stretch their win streak to nine and improve to 9-1, 3-0.
A penalty stroke goal by the conference's leading scorer, Rachel McCarthy, 3:53 into the game, staked the River Hawks to a 1-0 lead. UMass Lowell added two more tallies to take a 3-0 advantage 25:00 into the contest.
Katsikis added a penalty stroke of her own at the 27:54 mark to make it 3-1. Kayla Littig found the back of the cage for the River Hawks just 1:16 before the break to make it 4-1.
Junior Nicole Guimond (Fairfield, Maine) potted her first goal of the season early in the 39th minute, receiving a feed from classmate Maura Hurley (Holden, Mass.) to slice the deficit in half.
Melissa Effertz scored just under two minutes later to push the lead back to three. The two teams again traded scores as Katsikis tallied her second of the game off a feed from freshman Bridget Davis (Mansfield, Mass.) in the 68th minute before McCarthy put away her second of the game just 29 seconds later.
Junior goalkeeper Megan Sullivan (Braintree, Mass.) made a season-high 18 saves, while Melanie Hopkins stopped one shot for the River Hawks, who outshot Saint Anselm, 34-9, including 20-3 in the opening half.
The Hawks return to action Friday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. when they head south to take on Assumption College.
