It was the first quarter of an ordinary game on an ordinary day when the University of Massachusetts at Lowell River Hawks women’s lacrosse team played the University of Hartford last week. U-Lowell would go on to win in a lopsided victory.

But it was no ordinary day for Noelle Lambert.

The junior attacker from Londonderry, N.H., scored in her first game with the River Hawks since the day she lost her leg in a moped accident on Martha’s Vineyard a little more than a year and a half ago.

Ms. Lambert played on a prosthetic leg, following a grueling year in which she took a season off from competition but kept a rigorous school and practice schedule with her team. After the goal, she was immediately mobbed by her teammates on the field and then teammates from the bench as the players celebrated with abandon.

Ms. Lambert received many honors as a high school player and scored 15 goals as a freshman at U-Lowell, but said this goal was tops in her career by far.

“I don’t even remember how I scored, I had to go back and watch it,” she told the Gazette by phone Monday after lacrosse practice. “I was so excited, having all my teammates meet me on the field, it was truly amazing. I broke down in tears. All the hard work that I’ve put in, it really paid off with that goal. I’ve never had a reaction like that from my teammates, from the audience.”

Ms. Lambert’s return to Division 1 competition comes just 20 months after the July 2016 moped accident on Barnes Road. She was driving a rented moped with lacrosse teammate Kelly Moran riding on the second seat when she lost control of the moped and collided with a large truck traveling in the opposite direction.

Ms. Moran also returned to competition this year.

Last fall, Ms. Lambert returned to the Vineyard to thank the emergency personnel who responded to the accident.

The accident sparked a round of concerted activism among people who oppose rental mopeds on Island roadways. The increased scrutiny resulted in tighter enforcement of moped regulations, and an ongoing effort in Oak Bluffs to ban rental mopeds.