ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul lacrosse (2-2) hits the road for the first time in program history for a three game swing through six states. After playing its first four games at home, Concordia's three game road trip this weekend is the first of seven straight road games in a 16-day period.
The weekend journey will cover over 1,750 miles and approximately 27 hours of bonding on bus rides for the first year program as Concordia heads to Rockhurst in Kansas City, Missouri for a Friday night game at 7 p.m. at Bourke Field before heading across the state to the St. Louis area on the Illinois side of the border at McKendree University for an 11 a.m. game on Sunday at Leemon Field. From there, Concordia heads north to Michigan's upper peninsula for the longest stretch of the journey to face Northern Michigan on Tuesday at 11 a.m.
GAME COVERAGE
For Concordia's first road trip, McKendree and Northern Michigan have listed video webcasts and live stats on their schedule pages while Rockhurst does not indicate live online coverage for Friday night's games. For all three road games, visit
cspbears.com/lacrosse for recaps, and follow
@CSPBears on Twitter for updates as they become available.
ABOUT THE BEARS
The Golden Bears have split their first four home games in program history, sweeping Northland and Marian on inaugural weekend before dropping games to Westminster and Findlay in its first Division II competition. So far, CSP has played an inaugural NAIA program (Marian, W 10-8), an inaugural Division III program (Northland, W 23-0), a second year Division II program (Westminster, L 14-21) and an established Division II program (Findlay, L 6-15).
CSP CAUSING TURNOVERS EARLY
Through their first four games, Concordia leads Division II in caused turnovers per game with 19.5 including the seventh most in a game twice with 21 against Westminster and Marian. CSP also added 19 against Northland (17th) and 17 against Findlay (22nd). Freshman
Brooke Genzler leads the team and is seventh in the country with 3.75 caused turnovers per game while sophomore
Sheala Osborne is 10th nationally with 3.25 per game among 173 players ranked in the statistical category. Osborne had six caused turnovers against Westminster and Genzler had six against Northland, the sixth-highest individual total in DII lacrosse this year. Genzler and freshman
Kailey Heinl each have four caused turnovers in a game as well, Heinl against Findlay and Genzler against Westminster to rank in the nation's top-30.
GOLDEN BEARS GATHERING GROUND BALLS
Going hand-in-hand with causing turnovers is CSP's ability to collect ground balls, with 31.75 per game to rank second in the country with a season-high 41 against Marian which is the sixth-highest single game team total on the year in Division II. Concordia also scooped up 34 against Westminster, the 14th-highest single game team total. Freshman goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt leads the team and is fourth in the country with 6.5 per game while freshman
Cassidy Leininger is 37th among 174 ranked players with 3.75 per game. Lottsfeldt has three of the top-six single game efforts to date nationwide, collecting nine against Findlay (third most), and eight each against Westminster and Marian - tied for the sixth most in a game.
CONCORDIA WINNING THE DRAW
Concordia has also been exceptional on the draw, securing 15.0 draw controls per game to rank 15th in the country with freshman
Brooke Genzler and
Kailey Heinl pacing the team with 3.50 each followed by junior
Kallie LaValle's 3.00. Concordia's had two games ranked 14th with 19 each against Westminster and Northland with Genzler and LaValle each securing team season-highs of seven against Westminster and Northland, respectively to rank 26th for individual player single-game highs.
TOP FLIGHT SCORING EFFORT
In Concordia's inaugural game, the Golden Bears netted 23 goals, just two shy of the Division II single game high in 2017 (Mount Olive against Barton) and tied for the fourth most in a game this season. So far, the individual scoring record is five goals by freshman
Kailey Heinl against Westminster while freshman
Alina Boyce has netted hat tricks in all four games with a high of four goals against Westminster. The team has six total hat tricks on the year, with freshman
Maya Hernandez also scoring three goals against Westminster. There have been three five-point games so far this season, Heinl (5g, 0a) and Boyce (4g, 1a) against Westminster and freshman
Riley Burns (2g, 3a) against Northland.
Boyce leads the team with 13 goals and 15 points while Heinl has 10 goals and 11 points. Freshman
Maddie Hentges is right there with six goals and three assists for nine points. Freshman
Kaci Reid has a team-high four assists and is tied for fourth in points with seven along with junior
Kallie LaValle (4g, 3a).
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: ROCKHURST
The Hawks are off to a 1-2 start to the season, winning the 2017 opener 16-5 over Ottawa University (Kan.) on the road before falling 19-6 to defending NCAA DII champion Florida Southern and 21-6 to McKendree University with both games at McKendree's campus. Rockhurst has had a program since 2014, going 0-10 in its inaugural year which makes the 2017 seniors the first four year graduating class. Members of the Rocky Mountain (RMAC), Rockhurst improved to 6-7 by year two before finishing 7-9 last year but have a combined 2-15 record in league play.
Rockhurst finished seventh in the eight team RMAC last year, a game behind CSP's opponent last Friday, Westminster. Now expanded to a 10-team league, Rockhurst was picked seventh, a spot behind Westminster in sixth. CSP will also play the second (Regis) and fifth (CSU-Pueblo) teams in the preseason poll later this season on the road.
Friday night's game marks the home opener for Rockhurst where they've posted winning records at Bourke Field the last two years, going 11-7 since the inaugural season. In three games this year, Hannah Weisbrod leads the team with eight goals while Madeline Gilstrap has a team-high 11 points including an impressive nine assists while Sam Roth has six points (5g, 1a). In the net, Leena Nabulsi has played all 180 minutes and has a .416 save percentage and 15.0 goals against average while facing 85 shots.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: McKENDREE
McKendree is a year further along than Rockhurst, now in its fifth women's lacrosse campaign. A 1-14 inaugural season started the program in 2013 before improving to 3-7 in 2014 as an independent, 11-7 in 2015 with a 3-4 record in the GLIAC and a 9-10 record in 2016 including a 6-6 finish in the GLIAC. McKendree was picked third in the 2017 GLIAC Coaches Poll, two spots ahead of CSP's last opponent, Findlay who defeated Concordia 15-6. In addition to Findlay (5th) and McKendree (3rd) from the GLIAC, Concordia will also host Indianapolis (4th) and play a home and home with Northern Michigan (8th).
The Bearcats dropped their season opener 18-14 to defending champions Florida Southern before defeating Rockhurst 21-6 in a pair of home games. They'll be home for the first four games of the 2017 season, hosting #17 Regis on Monday afternoon.
In two games, Victoria Lelo leads the Bearcats with 12 points including 10 goals while Paige Salthouse has seven goals and Hannah Sugarman has six points (5g, 1a). Amy Porta has played 90 of the team's 119:40 in net and holds a .259 save percentage and 13.3 goals against average and a 1-1 record.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Concordia and Northern Michigan will tangle in Marquette, Michigan in the first of a 2017 home and home series between two inaugural Division II programs. The Wildcats also played Northland College in their inaugural game, picking up an 18-1 win over the Lumberjills on February 18. Prior to hosting Concordia on Tuesday, Northern Michigan will host Aquinas on Saturday. NMU was picked eighth in the eight team GLIAC in its inaugural season.
In the inaugural game, NMU scored seven goals in the first 10 minutes by six different players. In the end, Shelby Klotz led the Wildcats with five goals including the first in program history 19 seconds into play. Blair Osgood and Graison Ringlever each had four goals and an assist to match Klotz with five total points. NMU held Northland to five shots on goal compared to their 34 on the cage. Brianna Bangle picked up the win in the net with four saves on the day.
