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2020 women's lacrosse team huddle vs CMU
Mark Stickler

16th-ranked lacrosse heads to Florida for big spring trip

Golden Bears face two ranked teams and a team receiving national votes

2.28.20

By: Josh Deer
ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul (4-0) looks to continue its best start in program history while facing its toughest week of the season on a three game spring trip to Florida. This Sunday, it starts with a neutral site game against #6 Regis (1-0) on the campus of Florida Tech in Melbourne at 11 a.m. (CT), then head to #7 Tampa (3-1) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. (CT) before heading back to Florida Tech (2-0) next Thursday at 6 p.m. at Panther Stadium.

FOLLOW LIVE
All three games on Concordia's spring break trip will feature live stats, and the two true away games at Tampa and Florida Tech will feature a webcast, while the Regis game may also add a webcast option pending the site hosts capability to staff the event. All links are on the schedule page as well as the CSP Bears gameday fan app, available in the iPhone App Store or Android Play Store on your mobile devices.

NATIONALLY RANKED
While the Golden Bears face three tough tests, their opponents are also now on notice as Concordia was tabbed #16 in the country by the Nike/US Lacrosse Division II Women's Top 20 for the program's first-ever national ranking. In that poll, Tampa checked in at #3, up three spots from the previous poll but have since fallen to Lindenwood, the top-ranked team in the Nike/USL poll and fifth in the IWLCA Top-25. Regis is ranked #6 by both polls and Florida Tech is one of four teams receiving votes in the Nike/USL Top-20 poll, putting them essentially in that poll's top-25 as well. In the IWLCA Division II Top-25 Coaches Poll (the default ranking source for cspbears.com), the Golden Bears remain unranked despite a 4-0 start and with a win over former #14 Colorado Mesa, who remained #20 ranked despite its 15-4 loss at CSP and an 0-2 start.

TEAM NATIONAL RANKS (100 DII teams)
  • 3rd - save percentage (.647)
  • 3rd - ground balls (31.75/game)
  • 3rd - scoring defense (4.5)
  • 4th - scoring margin (12.0)
  • 5th - caused turnovers (17.5/game)
  • 12th - shots on goal (28.0/game)
  • 14th - scoring offense (16.5)
  • 18th - points (23.75)
  • 23rd - draw controls (15.25)
  • 24th - assists (7.25)
INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL RANKS (Top-100) ABOUT THE GOLDEN BEARS
Concordia hits the road for the first time this season after a 4-0 start to 2020 with four straight 8-plus goal wins at the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium. The historic start is Concordia's best in school history and extends its home winning streak to five games, another school record which led to the team's first-ever national ranking with the #16 mark in the Nike/US Lacrosse Top-20 poll. It's been against solid competition, too, beating the preseason third ranked teams in both the RMAC (UC-Colorado Springs) and GLVC (Rockhurst) and second-ranked team from the RMAC (#14 Colorado Mesa) for the team's first-ever win over a nationally-ranked Division II opponent to snap a 13 game losing streak against nationally-ranked DII opponents.

The Golden Bears have been dominant in all phases:
  • +48 ... 66-18 season goal margin (16.5 to 4.5 average)
  • +93 ... 153-60 shot margin (38.2 to 15.0 average)
  • +20 ... 29-9 assist margin
  • +37 ... 127-90 ground ball margin
  • +31 ... 61-30 draw control margin
  • -19 ... 83-102 turnover advantage
  • +28 ... 70-42 caused turnover margin
  • +.351 ... .882 (67-76) to .531 (52-98) clears advantage
SERIES HISTORY: CSP 0-1 vs Regis, Tampa & Florida Tech
The Golden Bears have faced all three opponents once each in their four year program history with all three meetings coming during Concordia's inaugural season in 2017. All three games were also 10-plus goal margins, falling at #12 Florida Tech 20-5 before two days late falling 20-7 at Tampa in mid-March, with a 21-3 loss at #15 Regis in mid-April.

ABOUT THE RANGERS
One of the top Division II programs and an RMAC power, Regis is ranked #6 in the IWLCA and in the Nike/US Lacrosse national polls after a national semifinal run a year ago during a season in which they finished as national leaders with a .952 winning percentage after a 20-0 start. They won their first RMAC regular season championship with a 9-0 league record and captured the RMAC Tournament title, as well. The Rangers were top seed and host of the NCAA Midwest Region Tournament, winning the region title for the second year in a row with a win over Colorado Mesa in the Midwest Region title game. Despite earning the top seed at the NCAA Division II Championship, the Rangers were ousted by eventual national champion Adelphi in the national semifinals.

The preseason favorites in the RMAC in 2020, Regis is led by 2019 IWLCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year Sarah Kellner in her 14th season with a 140-65 career record with three RMAC Touranment titles and three NCAA Midwest Region Tournament appearances with a pair of region tournament wins and national semifinalist finishes.

The Rangers are led by junior goalie Elle Crawford, the 2019 RMAC Goalkeeper of the Year and an IWLCA All-America Third Team selection and junior Kyleigh Peoples who was second on the team with 75 points a year ago and earned RMAC Attacker of the Year honors with 41 goals and 34 assists. Peoples was also an IWLCA All-Midwest Region First Team selection. Senior Ali Vanek was also an IWLCA All-Region First Team selection a year ago with 75 points including 48 goals.

Following a 15-3 season opening win at home over Franklin Pierce, Vanek and Crawford earned RMAC Player of the Week honors to start 2020 with Vanek scoring five goals and one assist on just six shots while Crawford racked up 12 saves, 11 ground balls and allowed just three goals.

ABOUT THE SPARTANS (by Abe Schwartz)
Tampa entered the 2020 season ranked #6 nationally in the IWLCA Division II Preseason Coaches Poll and favorites to win the SSC. They backed up their praise by starting the season 3-0. The Spartans outscored opponents 60-22 in wins over Alabama-Huntsville, Newberry, and Lenoir-Rhyne. In their most recent game, Tampa fell to #5 Lindenwood 11-5. Cece Colombo led the Spartans, scoring three goals and adding two ground balls. Bridget Sutter has claimed all decisions on the season at goalie. She tallied eight saves on 16 shots. Carly Vaccarro had two ground balls and attempted two shots in the game. She will enter the Concordia matchup three weeks removed from earning Division II Offensive Player of the Week honors. Tampa won the forced turnover battle 24-19 against Lindenwood, but could not capitalize on their free position shots, going 1-6 throughout the defeat.

Last year, the Spartans finished 14-4, going 5-1 in SSC play. The record led them to an SSC Championship win in overtime over then #5 Florida Southern. Tampa hosted the first round of the NCAA tournament, but were upset by tenth ranked Queens to end their season. In 2018, Tampa posted their first winning season in program history and finished the season ranked #19.

ABOUT THE PANTHERS
The Panthers were picked sixth in the eight team Sunshine State Conference (SSC) Preseason Poll but are off to a 2-0 start and receiving national recognition as one of four teams receiving votes in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division II Top-20 with four of the teams in the league ranked among the nation's top-14 teams. The Panthers are coming off of a 7-9 overall record and 2-4 finish in SSC play to finish in a four way tie for fourth in the league last season, and are two years removed from a 17-3 record, co-SSC regular season title with Florida Southern and runner up finish at the NCAA South Region Tournament in 2018. The 2017 team was also strong, finishing 14-4 overall and second in the SSC with an NCAA South Region quarterfinal finish in the program's third year.

The 2019 team's 2-0 start includes a 16-8 win over Post and an 8-7 win over Palm Beach Atlantic at the US Lacrosse Headquarters at Tierney Field in Sparks, Maryland on February 15-16. Before the Panthers host the Golden Bears next week, they'll play three more contests starting this afternoon at Young Harris (Ga.), then play at Emmanuel College (Ga.) on Sunday and host #6 Regis on Tuesday in their home opener.

Through two games, Florida Tech is led by Aleah Fjelstad offensively with nine points and six goals while Madison Savje is the top distributor on the squad with four assists, tied for second with two others with six total points as Kailee O'Brien and Alexis Townsend each have four goals and two assists. Mollie Kaplan also adds four goals and an assist for five points. O'Brien and Townsend each led the team with eight ground balls, Kaplan leads the team with 13 draw controls and Olivia Going leads the defense with seven caused turnovers and adds six ground balls.

The Florida Tech goalkeeping has been an early season committee with both players getting a start and both players playing in each game with an even 60/60 minute distribution. Madison Fields leads the duo with a .529 save percentage and nine saves while Chloe Zador has allowed one fewer goal (7) but made just three saves for a .300 save percentage. Fields has faced 24 total shots to Zador's 15. Together, they combine for a 7.5 goals against average, .444 save percentage and 12 saves in two games.
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