ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Friday evening, Concordia-St. Paul (6-4, 3-2 GLIAC) hosts Northern Michigan (3-6, 2-3 GLIAC) in the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium at 6 p.m. The game will be the programs inaugural Bears vs. Cancer game, as well as Youth Night. All youth attending at the game and wearing a jersey receive admission for $1 with all proceeds to Bears vs Cancer.
ONLINE COVERAGE
Watch the games live online, free of charge through Concordia's single camera webcast via Stretch Internet. The video will be joined by the call of
Dan Flanagan, voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. The St. Paul native is a graduate of Fordham University (N.Y.) where he trained in broadcasting in multiple sports including the Rams football team in the Patriot League.
The games will also be available to follow along with
live stats.
BEARS VS CANCER & YOUTH NIGHT
For Friday night's game, Concordia lacrosse is hosting Youth Night, where kids from the community are encourage to wear their lacrosse jerseys (or any lacrosse jersey!) to the Concordia Dome. All youth attending the game will receive $1 admission.
Proceeds from the Youth Night sales will be donated directly to the
Lacrosse vs Cancer Foundation. The organization has already raised $79,906 of its $150,000 goal. Of the donations, half of the organization's proceeds will fund family support and child life programs while the other half will help fund pediatric brain tumor research.
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SERIES HISTORY: CSP 4, NORTHERN MICHIGAN 0
The Golden Bears have had the Wildcats number early in the series. The two programs were founded the same year in 2017 and have played home/home sets each of the last two years with last year being as members of the Great Lakes (GLIAC) conference.
Concordia holds a +35 scoring margin against the Wildcats in their four meetings, but despite the huge margin two of the games have been competitive. In the first contest in 2017 at NMU, CSP held on for a 14-8 win while last year's meeting in the Concordia Dome resulted in an 18-15 win for CSP. In the other two games, Concordia held comfortable victories, 21-6 at home against NMU in 2017 and 23-12 at NMU last year.
Junior
Maddie Hentges has been a handful for the Wildcats, racking up 26 points in the four games including 20 goals. She set school records of nine goals and 10 points in last year's 23-12 win and also had five goals and seven points in the 21-6 win in 2017. She also has collected 11 ground balls, tied with goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt for the most against the Wildcats.
Junior
Alina Boyce has also been strong offensively against NMU with 16 points and 13 goals in the four games. She had a pair of six goal performances, securing eight points in the 23-12 win last year and seven points in the 21-6 win in 2017.
Defensively, junior
Sara Stickler has racked up nine caused turnovers against Northern Michigan including five in the 14-8 road win in 2017 in the first meeting between the squads.
Lottsfeldt has earned the win in all four games in the net and has a .512 save percentage with 22 saves and 21 goals allowed. She has held a strong 7.00 goals against average in the all-time series across 180 minutes out of a possible 240.
LAST WEEK: BEARS SPLIT ON THE ROAD, CLIMB STANDINGS & REACH MILESTONES
Concordia has now won three of its last four games with a home win over Davenport (12-9) and road wins at Maryville (18-3) and most recently at Lewis (17-8). The lone loss was a 17-12 defeat at McKendree last Friday. The 3-1 surge puts Concordia in fourth place in the GLIAC, trailing McKendree (5-2) by two wins for third and ranking a half game ahead of fourth place Davenport (3-3). The NMU game this Friday will be followed by the return trip to Marquette next Wednesday, with the home/home travel partner series being critical to the GLIAC standing as the Wildcats (2-3) are a game behind the Golden Bears. The Golden Bears have a +9 goal margin in the five GLIAC contests and are +25 overall on the season.
In last week's games, four of Concordia's juniors reached career milestones:
Maddie Hentges became the first to 100 goals and
Katie Lottsfeldt to 300 saves at McKendree;
Alina Boyce joined Hentges in the 100-point club in the McKendree game while
Kailey Heinl became the third 100-point player in team history on Sunday at Lewis)
Boyce led CSP with 10 points on the week including seven (5g, 2a) in the win at Lewis while Hentges had eight points on the week including five (4g, 1a) at McKendree on Friday. Freshman
Sara McNicoll added seven points with three on Friday and four on Saturday including four total goals and three assists. Senior
Izzy Snow also chipped in a five point weekend.
Sophomore
Lexi Stanley had a big weekend with 13 draw controls, including just one off the school's single game record with seven in the win at Lewis on Sunday. She also had five ground balls an three caused turnovers on the weekend. Freshman
Mary Keating had a weekend high for the team with five ground balls at McKendree, picking up seven on the weekend while
Izzy Snow added five draw controls and four ground balls in the weekend split.
In the net,
Katie Lottsfeldt had nine saves and eight goals allowed in 60 minutes in the win at Lewis and made five saves at McKendree.
SEASON RANKINGS
Juniors
Alina Boyce and
Maddie Hentges rank eighth and 10th in the league in goals scored with 27 and 25, respectively while Hentges is 12th with 35 points and Boyce is 14th with 34. Freshman
Sara McNicoll ranks 11th in the conference with 11 assists while Hentges is 14th with 10.
Sophomore
Lexi Stanley ranks seventh in the league with 26 ground balls and 14 caused turnovers and 11th with 39 draw controls.
Concordia's goalies rank third and fourth in the league in save percentage led by sophomore
Claire Hagen at 45.5 percent with junior
Katie Lottsfeldt at 43.5 percent. Hagen is also second in the league with a 6.84 goals against average while Lottsfeldt is fourth with an 11.54 average. Lottsfeldt also ranks fourth in the league with 35 ground balls and her aggressive play in net has led to 10 caused turnovers.
ABOUT THE WILDCATS
After winning their season opener 17-8 at home against Albion on February 23, the Wildcats dropped their next six games while allowing at least 17 games in each of the losses. But NMU has rebounded with road wins the last two weekends at Maryville (14-8) and Lewis (13-3).
The three win season is a new program high for NMU, coming off back-to-back 2-13 seasons, including a 1-11 finish in GLIAC play last year and 0-7 GLIAC finish in 2017 in their inaugural campaign.
Graison Ringlever leads NMU with 24 points including 22 goals. Three Wildcats have 20-plus points with freshmen Emily Renfrew adding 21 points (15g, 6a) and Aleya Speas adding 20 (17g, 3a). Freshman Jessica Daniels is next in line with 19 points, all coming on goals as she is second on the team. Ringlever also leads NMU with 43 draw controls and is second with 13 ground balls. Jessica Close leads the club with 21 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers.
Cam Stilson has played all 541:42 minutes of the team's nine games in goal with 96 saves and a 41.6 save percentage and 14.95 goals against average.
