ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul lacrosse (4-1, 1-0 GLIAC) hosts its first weekend GLIAC set, welcoming Tiffin (3-3, 0-1 GLIAC) on Friday at 7 p.m. and #18 Grand Valley State (3-2, 1-0 GLIAC) on Sunday at noon at the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium.
Concordia brings a program record four game winning streak into the weekend, facing each opponent for the first time in its young two year history.
WATCH ONLINE VIA MULTIPLE DEVICES
The games will be streamed online, free of charge through Stretch Internet's
GameCentral portal. The in-house production is a one camera, high definition feed with audio play-by-play by Dan Flanagan, the Voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. Flanagan, a St. Paul native, is a graduate of Fordham University in New York where he trained as a broadcaster.
The game is available on numerous devices aside from the standard online stream, viewers can view the game on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Roku. Simply search for the keyword "NSIC" on the preferred device.
Fans can also follow along on live stats, either through Concordia's
traditional live stats page or through the
GLIAC's live stats, which feature a mobile-friendly interface.
LAST WEEK: BEARS TOP NORTHERN MICHIGAN 18-15
In Concordia's first-ever conference game, the Golden Bears built an 11-2 halftime lead and held three 10-goal leads before holding off a Northern Michigan comeback in an 18-15 win in the GLIAC opener. The Bears are now 3-0 all-time against Northern Michigan including a pair of wins in the Concordia Dome over the Wildcats. The win also gave the team a four game winning streak and a 4-1 start to the season.
In the win, sophomore
Maddie Hentges recorded a team season high six point performance with four goals and a pair of assists while junior
Sheala Osborne and freshman
Raelyn Korinek each had five points to account for three of the top individual point performances of the year. Osborne had three goals and two assists while Korinek matched Hentges' four goals while dishing one assist.
Sophomore goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt had a strong performance in net, allowing just two first half goals while making four saves for a 66.7 save percentage. She also collected six ground balls, matching her own team season high in just one half of play.
CSP IN THE NCAA/GLIAC TEAM RANKINGS
The Golden Bears rank in the top three in the GLIAC in nine team statistics, highlighted by a league-leading 26.0 ground balls per game, which ranks 13th in the country. The Bears are also 19th nationally with 7.4 assists per game which is second in the league.
From there, the Bears are third in the conference in caused turnovers (10.4), free position percentage (.400), points per game (20.6), scoring defense (11.4), scoring offense (13.2), scoring margin (+1.8) and shots on goal per game (25.4).
CSP IN THE NCAA/GLIAC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
With the 13th-ranked ground ball team in the country, sophomore goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt has led the charge with 4.75 per game, ranking seventh in the country and leading the GLIAC. She's also third in the league in total saves (28) and fourth in saves per game (7.00) while splitting time fairly evenly with freshman
Claire Hagen, who is seventh in the league in ground balls per game (2.75).
Sophomore
Maddie Hentges ranks third in the league with 5.4 shots on goal per game, resulting in the fourth rank in total assists (7) and 10th in points per game (2.4). Three players rank in the league's top seven in assists per game: Hentges, sophomore
Riley Burns (1.0, 7th) and junior
Sheala Osborne (1.0, 7th).
Osborne also ranks fourth in the league with 2.0 caused turnovers per game, which is 40th among Division II women's lacrosse players.
ABOUT THE TIFFIN DRAGONS
Tiffin has traded off a loss and a win consistently all season, failing to either win or lose back-to-back games resulting in an even 3-3 mark. Their lone GLIAC game was a 20-10 loss at home to Grand Valley State last Friday, but they rebounded with a non-conference win at Findlay on Tuesday evening this week.
The Dragons have sponsored women's lacrosse since the 2009-10 academic year and are coming off a 12-6 overall season, producing a 7-0 home record and a 5-2 record in conference play in 2016-17, reaching the GLIAC Tournament semifinals where they fell 12-9 at Grand Valley State.
This year, Tiffin leads the GLIAC and is 12th nationally with just 15.33 turnovers per game while goalie Kat Schneeberger leads the conference and is seventh in the country with 12.4 saves per game.
Sophomore midfielder Elle Hamilton leads the Dragons with 20 points, scoring a team-high 16 goals while tying for the team-high of four assists. Senior midfielder Elle Macmillan adds 17 points with 15 goals - both second on the team.
ABOUT GRAND VALLEY STATE
The Lakers are off to a 3-2 start including a 1-0 start in league playing following last Friday's 20-10 win at Tiffin. GVSU followed it up with another road win, a 22-11 non-conference win at Wheeling Jesuit.
Lacrosse dates back to 2003 at Grand Valley State and although the team finished with a losing record (8-9) a year ago, the Lakers were GLIAC regular season champions with a 6-1 record and finished as GLIAC Tournament runner-up. They've won the GLIAC regular season every year (2013-present) and last year snapped their run of four straight GLIAC Tournament titles.
They've picked up GLIAC Player of the Week honors two weeks in a row, with this week's choice, Erka Neumen earning Offensive Player of the Week honors after scoring five goals with three assists in an eight point effort in the win over Tiffin while also putting in three goals in the win over Wheeling Jesuit.
On the season, Neumen leads GVSU with 17 goals and is tied for the team lead with Ashley Bailey with 22 points. Neuman also leads the team with 18 ground balls and 17 caused turnovers and is third with 22 draw controls.
Bailey is second on the team with 14 goals, eight assists. Kelley Fitzgerald leads the club with 14 assists.
In the net, Brianna DeMilia has started all five games and played 244:10 of 302:32 possible minutes. She's allowing just 12.8 goals against and has registered 42 saves on the year.