INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse team (11-7) ran into top seed, regular season conference champion and tournament host #11 Indianapolis (17-1), falling 21-3 against the Greyhounds on Friday afternoon at UIndy Lacrosse Field on National in the GLIAC Tournament semifinals.
The loss ends the best season in program history as Concordia set new program highs for wins in a season (11), conference wins (7), conference finish (4th), competing in, hosting and winning its first postseason contest and tying a program record for longest winning streak (4). It's the first winning campaign in the three years since founding the squad in 2017.
UIndy jumped on Concordia early, winning the first two draws and scoring goals 40 seconds into the game and 41 seconds later for a quick 2-0 lead.
The Golden Bears responded as senior
Izzy Snow scored on a free position shot three and a half minutes into play.
From there, UIndy's Grace Gunneson netted three straight goals in a five minute span to start an 8-0 run as the Greyhounds claimed a 10-1 advantage with 12:56 to play in the first half. Gunneson finished with a game-high seven goals and eight points.
Concordia held Indianapolis scoreless for the next four and a half minutes, with junior
Maddie Hentges netting her school record 54th goal of the season in between, cutting the score to 10-2 following a feed from freshman
Sara McNicoll who established a new single season assist record with 20.
UIndy scored four more times down the stretch to end the half ahead 14-2.
In the second half, Concordia wasted no time trying to revive its playoff hopes as sophomore
Lexi Stanley took the opening draw control, with freshman
Mary Keating dashing to the net for the score.
It would be Concordia's last, however, as the Greyhounds slowed the pace and used a running clock to its advantage to keep Concordia from continuing its momentum.
The Golden Bears fired 17 shots at UIndy in the contest, but only netted three against Cassidy King who was able to make eight saves with four each half. The Greyhounds kept junior two-time All-GLIAC goalie
Katie Lottsfeldt and the CSP defense on its toes from the opening draw with 33 total shots with Lottsfeldt saving five of the 26 on goal.
CSP held a slight advantage with an 11-10 edge in ground balls, but UIndy maintained an 18-8 margin on the draw.