Hawks spilt home opener
Over the weekend, both UMass Lowell men’s and women’s rugby teams kicked of their spring seasons. On Friday night, the men’s team played a double header under the lights at Cushing field against rival Merrimack College and the Wheaton College Lyons.
After grinding out to a close but frustrating 12-5 loss against the Warriors, the ’Hawks responded nicely with a commanding 21-7 win against Wheaton. The women’s team would open their season the next night with a hard fought, but futile effort against the Keene State College Owls, dropping their spring debut, 15-10. The one loss was the only game of the weekend for the woman’s team.
On Friday, there was no lack of effort from the River Hawks that lead to the split of the night. Lowell and Merrimack held each other to a gritty stalemate through the first half of the spring’s official season opener. However, it was the Warriors that came out hard for the second half and broke the scoreless tie by scoring a try just minutes into the half to make the score 5-0. They would miss their conversion, but were able to make-up for the mistake by converting again just moments later by scoring a try and on the ensuing conversion to make the score 12-0.
Lowell would do a good job fighting back from the steep deficit, scoring a try (though with a failed conversion), and applying a lot of offensive pressure before the clock would run out on them.
“It wasn’t too bad [of a performance]” said coach Nick Vettese “It was good to get the new guys quality playing time, and they showed that they can compete.”
That compete level by the River Hawks would continue right on into their next game against the Lyons of Wheaton college as they controlled the play throughout most of the entire game, and defeating them by a 21-7 final.
“[The spring season] is a good learning experience,” said Vettese “We use it to give the new guys quality playing time and experience, and that way we hope that they will be relaxed and experienced enough to compete in the fall when we can make a push for playoff spots.”
The quality start for a young and inexperienced Lowell team points towards a promising future for the squad. The spring season still has plenty of games left down the road for the ’Hawks to develop themselves to a position to be a strong competitor come the fall.
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