ST. PAUL, Minn. - This week, the Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse team (5-3, 2-2 GLIAC) will hit the road for a tour of the Great Lakes, heading to Northern Michigan (1-6, 0-4 GLIAC) on Wednesday afternoon, McKendree (2-7, 1-3 GLIAC) on Friday evening and #15 Indianapolis (6-3, 2-2 GLIAC) on Sunday afternoon.
To start the week at Northern Michigan, the Golden Bears and Wildcats play their second GLIAC game of the year in Marquette, Michigan with a 3 p.m. (CT) start time at the Superior Dome on Wednesday. From there, the Golden Bears depart Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a Friday tilt on the Illinois side of the eastern St. Louis area in Lebanon against McKendree University on Friday at 6 p.m. (CT) at Leemon Field. From there, they head east to Indiana where they'll face the nationally-ranked Greyhounds at Key Stadium at 11 a.m. (CT).
It could prove to be a pivotal week in the GLIAC standings as all four programs will face each other with CSP and UIndy each holding 2-2 GLIAC records with McKendree a game behind at 1-3 while NMU will be clawing for its first-ever conference victory. For a young Golden Bear team that spent the first half of the season consistently beating similar benchmarks from year one, it's a big opportunity to show even more growth in year two with the challenge of beating a team four times in a row (NMU) as well as avenging big losses against quality teams from a year ago (McKendree & UIndy).
All three games will feature live online coverage with a webcast and live stats. For specific links to each location,
visit the lacrosse schedule page.
ABOUT THE BEARS
The Golden Bears are the GLIAC leader with 23.5 ground balls per game (26th DII), rank second in the league in assists (32nd DII) and third in the GLIAC in caused turnovers (9.3, 55th DII) and shots on goal per game (22.8, 50th GLIAC). Additionally, the team ranks fourth in the league in saves percentage (.436), scoring defense (12.8), scoring margin (-1.13) and points per game (17.8).
Over seven of CSP's ground balls per game come from the net where sophomore
Katie Lottsfeldt leads the GLIAC with 4.1 per game (13th DII) while freshman
Claire Hagen adds 3.1 (4th GLIAC). Lottsfeldt also ranks third in the league with 46 saves while Hagen is seventh with 33.
Sophomore
Maddie Hentges leads the team and is sixth in the GLIAC with 10 assists and sophomore
Kailey Heinl is 11th in the league with 2.5 goals per game, followed closely by freshman
Raelyn Korinek with 2.38. Freshman
Lexi Stanley leads the defense with 1.5 caused turnovers per game and 2.6 ground balls per game to rank seventh and eighth in the conference, respectively while junior
Sheala Osborne is just behind her with 1.38 ground balls per game, eighth in the league.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN MATCHUP
The Golden Bears are now 3-0 in the two years since each program started in 2017 including this year's 18-15 win for CSP in the Concordia Dome to open GLIAC play. That win gave Concordia a pair of program milestones: longest winning streak (4) and first-ever conference victory as the Bears spent their first year as a Division II independent. In the win, sophomore
Maddie Hentges and freshman
Raelyn Korinek each scored four goals with Hentges adding a pair of assists and Korinek adding one. Junior
Sheala Osborne contributed a five point performance with three goals and two assists.
In goal, sophomore
Katie Lottsfeldt earned the win with four saves in the first and half and just two goals allowed for an 11-2 lead. She also had six ground balls in the win.
The Wildcats were led by Emily Dvorak and Graison Ringlever who each had five goals and an assist. All five Ringlever goals and four of Dvorak's five came in a second half comeback attempt that saw NMU trim a 17-7 lead with 16:36 to play to a final margin of three, 18-15 but the final NMU goal was scored with just 12 seconds to play as CSP had the clock on its side playing with the large second half lead.
In the all-time series, CSP holds a 53-29 scoring advantage, an average of 17.7 to 9.7. Last year in CSP's lone trip to Marquette, Michigan, the Bears defeated the Wildcats 14-8 in the first meeting between the squads and followed it up later in the year with a 21-6 win in the Concordia Dome three and a half weeks later. In three games against NMU, Hentges has racked up 16 points on 11 goals and five assists while senior
Kallie LaValle has 10 points on six goals and four assists. Lottsfeldt has 20 saves and 16 goals allowed in two and a half games in net, adding 10 ground balls.
On the year, Northern Michigan is second in the country in shot percentage (.539) and ninth in the country in free position percentage (.548), leading the GLIAC in both categories. They also rank second in the league and 36th nationally in saves percentage (.461). They are led by the league leader in goals and points, Dvorak (3.8 & 4.8), who ranks 25th & 40th in the country, respectively. In the net, Emily Karbaum is third in the league and 46th nationally with 8.6 saves per game and in the middle Graison Riglever leads the club, is third in the GLIAC and 57th in the country with 4.8 draw controls per game.
McKENDREE MATCHUP
The Golden Bears and Bearcats have met once before in 2017 in Concordia's second-ever road game. McKendree topped CSP 19-2 in the game to fall to 3-3 while the Bearcats improved to 2-1 early in the season. Concordia went on to finish the year 8-8 in the inaugural campaign while McKendree went 13-5 overall and 6-1 to finish as co-champions along with perennial GLIAC power Grand Valley State. In doing so, McKendree became the first program to capture a conference title aside from GVSU topping the Lakers 12-8 for the GLIAC Tournament championship.
In the prior meeting,
Kailey Heinl and
Alina Boyce each scored while
Maddie Hentges added an assist. Goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt was busy in net in making 20 saves. The Bearcats were led by Dana DiPasquale with seven points (4g, 3a) while Paige Salthouse and Victoria Lelo each had four ground balls and two caused turnovers with Lelo adding five points (3g, 2a). The Bearcat defense only allowed nine CSP shots on goal.
This year, McKendree's 2-7 overall record comes with perhaps the toughest strength of schedule in the country with six of their seven losses to nationally ranked opponents and the lone non-ranked loss to a team that is now ranked (#25 Tiffin). The Bearcats' two wins are over Oklahoma Baptist (21-6) in the season opener and Davenport (22-10) in the home opener.
The 2018 Bearcats are led by Salthouse (33g, 8a) and DiPasquale (23g, 18a) with 41 points apiece while Emily Nelson (14g, 14a) has 28 points and Rylee Skachenko has 20 goals. DiPasquale's 16 assist leads the conference. Hannah Sugarman leads the team in both ground balls (38) and caused turnovers (21), ranking 15th nationally and second in the GLIAC in GB/game (4.0) and 29th in DII and third in the GLIAC in CT/game (2.25). In the net, Collin Patton leads the team with 535:06 of 540:00 minutes played, facing 299 shots with a 16.8 goals against average and 92 saves (.380). Patton ranks 25th in DII and leads the GLIAC in saves (10.3/game).
INDIANAPOLIS MATCHUP
The Golden Bears and Greyhounds have met once before in Concordia's 2017 inaugural season finale and the lone game played outdoors at Sea Foam Stadium, falling 17-6 to a Greyhound team that is now a nationally-ranked squad just a year later. In the loss,
Alina Boyce (2g, 1a) and
Cassidy Leininger (1g, 2a) each delivered three point performances as five different players scored for Concordia and four of the six goals were assisted. Boyce finished the year with 32 goals and 41 points, ranking third on the team to end her freshman season.
UIndy scored the game's first five goals as CSP went 0-for-6 on free position shots in the first half (finishing 2-for-10).
Katie Lottsfeldt registered nine saves to finish her freshman year with 133 saves, and added six ground balls and a caused turnover. Hannah Burczyk led UIndy with six points (5g, 1a) off the bench.
The loss ended Concordia's inaugural campaign at 8-8 overall while UIndy went on to finish its second season with a 13-5 overall record and qualified for the GLIAC Tournament with a 5-2 league finish. This year, the Greyhounds were off to a 6-1 start including winning their first two GLIAC games, reaching as high as #9 in the IWLCA Top-25 before dropping a pair of games last weekend at #16 Grand Valley State and Tiffin (now ranked #25). The Greyhounds 2-1 against ranked opponents, falling 11-7 at home to #3 Lindenwood in the season opener before topping #9 Regis 12-11 and #21 McKendree (now unranked) 18-9 - both at home. They've scored at least 18 goals and won by at least nine goals in all of their wins except the Regis game.
On the year, the Greyhounds lead the GLIAC and rank 11th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 8.3 goals per game. They also rank second in the league in draw controls (17.1, 11th NCAA), caused turnovers (11.3, 35th NCAA), scoring margin (+7.6, 19th NCAA), scoring offense (15.9, 22nd NCAA) and ground balls (20.5, 45th NCAA).
Lauryn Hardoy leads the Greyhounds with 32 points (17g, 15a) while Delaney Davidson adds 26 points with a team-high 24 goals. Grace Gunneson adds 25 points (20g, 5a) with Abigail Lagos contributing 22 points (18g, 4a). Hardoy is third in the league in points (4.4/game) and second in assists (2.0/game) while Davidson is seventh in the GLIAC in goals (2.8/game).
Defensively, Riley McClure is a force, ranking seventh in the country with 2.9 caused turnovers per game while adding 4.3 draw controls per game (5th, GLIAC). In the middle, Peyton Romig is fourth in the country and leading the league with 10.0 draw controls per game (84 total).
One of the league's top net-minders, Lauren Granville leads the conference and is 16th in the country with a 9.31 goals against average and third in the conference with a .416 save percentage.
