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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Senior Conner Yatauro and redshirt junior Adam Yee each netted hat tricks on Sunday afternoon, but the University of Hartford men's lacrosse team came up short against No. 16 UAlbany, dropping a 15-11 decision at Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium. The Hawks (4-7) fall to 0-2 in America East action while the Great Danes (5-5) improve to 2-0 in the conference.

Five other Hawks scored in the contest with senior Brad Hutton adding two assists to his goal to join Yatauro and Yee with three points. Senior Andrew Cacchio and junior Ty Schuldt each recorded two points on a goal and an assist. Yee added to his career-best scoring day by collecting 10 ground balls on a 12-of-25 effort at the faceoff X. Netting all three of his goals in the final 17:24 of the contest, two of those tallies came out of wins inside the circle.

Out of the gates, the Great Danes wasted little time to strike the scoreboard as Ryan Feurstein gathered the ground ball out of the opening faceoff and raced down field to make it a 1-0 UAlbany lead just eight seconds in. Not long after, freshman Jaedon Henderson answered and put Hartford on the board, scoring on a feed from Hutton with 12:06 left in the first.

The two teams exchanged goals again, with John Maloney doing the honor for UAlbany at the 8:34 mark and Conner Yatauro following suit with 3:28 left, before Feuerstein put the Great Danes back in front before the end of the quarter with his second unassisted score with 15 ticks remaining on the clock. 

Despite the stanza coming to an end, UAlbany, which never trailed in the contest, kept the scoring going in the second by netting the quarter's first three goals. Sparked by Feurstein's late first-quarter goal, that 4-0 run, which featured Miles Thompson's first of five markers as well as tallies from Bennett Drake and Riley Lasda, extended the visiting team's lead to 6-2 with 9:22 to go before halftime.

Rookie Doug Biondi stopped the bleeding for the Hawks, making it a 6-3 contest with his fifth goal of the year at the 6:40 mark, but Miles Thompson struck again for the Great Danes before the end of the half to regain his team's four-goal advantage at 7-3.

Out of the break, the offense continued to roll for the Great Danes. Two man-up goals contributed to a 4-0 spurt that ballooned UAlbany's lead to 11-3 with 2:30 left in the third.

Down the stretch, though, Hartford started to chip away, picking up the pace on the offensive end while going to work defensively, forcing six UAlbany turnovers. In the second half, the Great Danes committed 10 turnovers, thanks to the Hawks' back line. Six seconds after Bennett made it four unanswered Great Danes' goals, Yee ended what was a 15:37 scoring drought for Hartford after earning a win at the X and going the distance for his first goal of the afternoon.

Yee then went back-to-back for Hartford as he scored yet again out of the faceoff just nine seconds into the final quarter. Two and a half minutes later, Yatauro made it three unanswered Hawk scores with his second tally to bring his team's deficit down to five (11-6) with 12:21 remaining. Hartford went on to outscore the defending league champs, 7-4, in the final 15 minutes of play, but was never able to recover from UAlbany's previous 8-1 scoring surge. Cacchio's lone goal of the game with 9:07 left closed the gap to four at 12-8, but that would be as close as the Hawks would come.

Great Danes' goalie Blaze Riorden also finished with double-digit saves, recording 13 including five in the final quarter. Hartford won the ground ball battle, 38-33, and forced 18 UAlbany turnovers. On the man-up, the Hawks were successful in one of four chances while the great Dances converted on all but one of their four extra-man opportunities.

UAlbany was led by Miles Thompson and Lyle Thompson, the nation's top-two leading scorers, who each notched a game-best six points. Miles Thompson scored five times in the contest while Lyle Thompson assisted on five scores.

The Hawks wrap-up a four-game on Tuesday when they step out of America East action to host Dartmouth in their final non-conference, regular season game. Opening faceoff from Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium is scheduled for 4 p.m.