AVE MARIA, Fla. - Concordia-St. Paul (5-3) overcame an early three goal deficit and held on for a 16-15 victory at Ave Maria (3-3) on Sunday afternoon at Gyrene Field in 80-degree, sunny weather.
Concordia continues its tour of Florida with a Tuesday afternoon game at Keiser University, facing the Seahawks at 2 p.m. (CT) / 3 p.m. (ET) in West Palm Beach. The Seahawks fell 13-12 to #2 (NAIA) Lawrence on Thursday night at home and enter the game 0-6 in their inaugural season at the NAIA level.
The Golden Bears knocked off the sixth-ranked team in the NAIA level, winning back-to-back road games for the first time in program history as they move to 3-1 on the year in road contests.
Freshmen
Maddie Hentges and
Kailey Heinl established new program records with six goal performances, topping Heinl's five goal mark against Westminster (2/24).
They combined to score seven goals in just over eight minutes of play to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 9-6 lead as part of an 8-2 scoring run. Freshman
Sidney Schreiner also had a pair of goals, scoring the first and ninth in building the first half lead.
Ave Maria continued to climb back into the game, scoring three in a row to force a fourth tie in the half with Hentges converting a pair of goals in the last 28 seconds of the half for an 11-9 lead.
In the second half's opening minute, freshman
Riley Burns scored a key goal to give Concordia its second three goal lead of the game at 12-9 with Ave Maria once again climbing back, this time with a 4-0 scoring run to take a 13-12 lead with 21:18 to go.
Like the first half, the second half also featured four ties as Heinl scored a pair of goals within 34 seconds of each other to re-tie and reclaim the lead 14-13 with 20:35 to play.
Ave Maria forced ties at 14-14 (13:48 left) and 15-15 (7:49 left) as the two teams tightened up their defensive grips for the stretch run.
Hentges scored the game-winner with a man-up goal with 3:49 remaining on a free position shot to deliver the win. Burns added a go-ahead goal, her second of the game, to put CSP ahead 15-14 prior to the Hentges game-winner.
In the game's closing minute, Ave Maria was able to forced a turnver with 23 seconds left, getting the ground ball with 15 seconds for a final rush on the cage, but were not credited with a shot against freshman goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt, who secured the win for CSP.
Lottsfeldt improves to 5-3, earning the decision in all eight games as she made five saves while facing 23 total shots (20 on goal). Her counterpart, Bianca Ballarin was credited with 17 total saves while facing 40 total shots (33 on goal) as Concordia held a strong advantage in shot attempts.
The Golden Bears also held the advantage taking care of the ball, forcing 28 turnovers while committing 23 and were successful on 11-of-15 clears while holding Ave Maria to 8-of-15.
Abby Castro led Ave Maria with five goals although Concordia also forced her into five turnovers.
Junior
Kallie LaValle added two more assists to her season line while freshmen
Maya Hernandez and
Kaci Reid also assisted on a goal each.
Sophomore
Sheala Osborne and Heinl each had four draw controls with freshman
Alina Boyce securing three. Boyce, Osborne and Lottsfeldt each had three ground balls, as well. Also of note, freshman
Tia Zachman made her debut, playing key minutes while securing a draw control and ground ball for the Bears.
