PHILADELPHIA – The Minutewomen used an early five-goal run and a pair of four-goal runs over the first 32 minutes of play and scored five in a row to end the game as the Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse squad dropped its 2018 Atlantic 10 season opener to UMass, 23-13, on Thursday afternoon on Sweeney Field. With the loss the Hawks fall to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in league play while the Minutewomen improve to 6-3 overall and 1-0 in the A-10.

Saint Joseph's junior midfielder Rebecca Lane matched a game-high seven points with a hat trick and four assists while rookie attacker Stephanie Kelly and sophomore midfielder Bridget Cerciello went for three goals and two helpers apiece. Junior midfielder Hayley Sabol (2g, 1a), junior attacker Francesca Donato (2g), and freshman attacker Sam McGee (1a) rounded out SJU's point scorers on the afternoon.

Cerciello scored the game's opening goal (27:44) on a feed from Kelly to give the Hawks their only lead of the day before UMass struck back with five in a row to take a 5-1 lead by the 20:13 mark.

The Hawks scored three of the game's next four on goals from Cerciello (17:17), Sabol (16:24), and Lane (12:30) to cut the deficit to two, 6-4, entering the final 12:30 of the first half, but the Minutewomen responded with four in a row to extend their lead out by six, 10-4, by the 7:56 mark.

Kelly (4:35) and Lane (2:28) alternated scoring with UMass to close out the first half as the Minutewomen went into the halftime break with a 12-6 advantage.

SJU hit the back of the net twice within 22 seconds to open the second half as Donato converted an eight meter (27:42) and Sabol scored on a feed from Cerciello (27:20) to bring the Hawks to within four.

However, UMass scored four straight (26:48, 23:41, 19:37, 18:43), all assisted goals, to once again double the score at 16-8.

The Hawks battled over the next 10:18, putting together five of the game's next seven goals. Kelly scored back-to-back times (17:55, 17:04) on feeds from Cerciello and Lane and, following a pair from UMass, Donato (10:30), Lane (9:08), and Cerciello (8:25) put together SJU's first three-goal run of the day to pull to within five with 8:25 to play.

From that point, however, UMass took over, scoring the final five goals of the game (5:46, 3:40, 3:22, 2:16, 1:28) for the 23-13 final.

Graduate student goalkeeper Liz O'Sullivan (4-5, 0-1 A-10) made a career-high 19 saves in net, nine in the first half and 10 in the second, in the full 60:00 to go with a pair of caused turnovers.

Of note, SJU was hit with six cards on the day, five of which were yellow, and UMass scored on four of its six player-up opportunities.

For the game, UMass owned a 48-22 advantage in shots with a balanced 24 in each half and held a 15-10 edge in ground balls. The Minutewomen earned 23 of the game's 37 possessions from the circle as UMass' Kiley Anderson won 16 individually and converted 4-of-8 FPS compared to SJU's 2-7. Junior midfielder Ally Beck earned five of SJU's 14 draw controls while Cerciello added three.

Saint Joseph's returns to action this Saturday, March 31 at VCU (2-6). Start time at Cary Street Field in Richmond, Va. is set for 1:00 p.m. The Rams open A-10 play at Richmond this evening before hosting the Hawks.

GAME NOTES: Saint Joseph's falls to 2-25 all-time against nine-time defending A-10 champion UMass... With seven points in Thursday's game, junior midfielder Rebecca Lane remains fifth all-time in career points (159) at SJU, just 10 shy of Kerry O'Connell '06... With three goals, Lane breaks onto SJU's all-time list for career goals and currently ties for ninth, with Margot Grant '97, with 90... With four assists, Lane moves into sole possession of second all-time in career assists (69) at SJU; she sits just four assists shy of breaking Shannon Feite '97's record of 72.