BALTIMORE – The UMBC women's soccer team scored two goals in the final 3:37 on Senior Day to earn a 3-3 draw against the UMass Lowell River Hawks, in an America East Conference contest on Sunday afternoon at Retriever Soccer Park.
 
"I'm proud of the resiliency that we put forth today," said UMBC Head Coach Rick Stainton. "To see it pay off was very nice, especially on a day when we celebrated our four seniors. For them {seniors} to get a result against a very good UMass Lowell team was quite a big deal. Kudos to many of our reserves who came off the bench and gave us some energy. They really impacted the game, and it was very visible today."
 
The Retrievers, who were limited to just a few scoring chances prior to starting the comeback, were awarded a corner kick with just under four minutes left in the contest. Senior Lola Negrete, who garnered a career-high three assists, sent a high-arching service from the left corner into the center of the box, where sophomore midfielder Delainey Varela-Keen was waiting to head in her first tally of the season. Varela-Keen, who hit the crossbar on a similar corner kick chance earlier in the half, recorded her second career marker and gave the Retrievers the spark they needed.
 
UMBC  (3-11-3, 0-4-3) got the equalizer just 1:04 later in the 88' following another corner kick attempt by Negrete. Senior forward Meghan McKye played the ball inside the box for sophomore forward Bella Roppolo, who managed to beat UMass Lowell goalkeeper Taylor Burgess from seven yards out.
 
Unbelievably, the Dawgs had an opportunity to win the contest with just ten seconds remaining but Varela-Keen's blast from 15-yards out struck the crossbar.
 
Graduate student forward Natasha Munro got the hosts on the board first as she scored an incredible goal in the 12^th minute. Negrete played a short corner for sophomore midfielder Misa Kasparcova, who put a shot on target from the upper left side of the box. Munro broke free on goal and sent a header off the bottom of the center of the crossbar after a well-timed leap. The ball bounced straight down and just snuck over the goal line.
 
The River Hawks (2-6-6, 2-2-2) scored a pair of goals to claim a 2-1 advantage at intermission. Calliste Brookshire scored on a penalty kick in the 27' and Chloe Layne scored off an assist by Marissa Saucedo 12 minutes later.
 
UMass Lowell made it 3-1 in the 64' as Laura Cetina beat UMBC goalkeeper Sara Gavagan (career-high 8 saves) with a free kick into the lower right corner of the net.
 
The visitors outshot UMBC by a 17-9 margin and took six corners compared to four by the Retrievers. UMBC, however, capitalized on three of their four opportunities.
 
UMBC, who was eliminated from America East Tournament contention, will conclude their season at New Hampshire next Sunday afternoon.