ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul lacrosse (3-3, 2-2 GLIAC) heads back to Michigan for the second weekend in a row to face #9 Grand Valley State (3-1) at the GVSU Lacrosse/Track & Field Stadium in Allendale. The Golden Bears and Lakers will play at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening and 10 a.m. on Saturday morning (CDT).

This marks the third straight opponent CSP will face in its GLIAC conference season opener.

SPECTATOR INFORMATION
Grand Valley State announced on March 15 that no spectators would be permitted at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision that was made in order to maximize student-athlete participation. Read more about the policy on GVSU's website.

FOLLOW ONLINE
Games will be available to watch online on a pay-per-view basis on the Grand Valley Sports Network. The games will also feature live stats, free of charge.

ROAD TRIP
The Golden Bears head out on their second of three challenging two-game road trips this weekend. It's the second straight trip to Michigan, falling twice last weekend on Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Northern Michigan in a pair of close games in Marquette, an overtime loss and a three goal loss. This weekend, it's Michigan's mainland in the Grand Rapids area against #9 Grand Valley State for a pair of games in a string of three straight games against nationally-ranked top-10 programs. Next week, CSP heads to the St. Louis area to face #1 Lindenwood in St. Charles, Missouri before heading across the state to the Kansas City area to face Rockhurst on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

The team gets a short break with a bye weekend on April 9-11 before coming back home to Sea Foam Stadium to play its first outdoor home games of 2021 against Davenport on April 16 & 18, wrapping up the regular season and vying for a spot in the 4-team GLIAC Tournament.

SERIES HISTORY: GVSU 4, CSP 0
The Golden Bears are 0-4 all-time against the Lakers with the closest margins being a pair of 17-4 losses in the two most recent meetings in 2019. GVSU has been ranked #13-to-#22 in all four contests. CSP scored its most goals (5) and allowed its most goals to GVSU (22) in the first-ever meeting in 2018 in the Concordia Dome. CSP has scored four goals in each of the most recent meetings. The Golden Bears have made two prior trips to Allendale, a 21-4 loss in 2018 and a 17-4 loss in 2019.

LAST TIME OUT: CSP DROPS PAIR OF CLOSE GAMES AT NMU
The Golden Bears' three game winning streak came to a close with a tough 16-15 overtime loss on Friday night at Northern Michigan, the first-ever loss to the Wildcats in the seventh meeting. On Sunday, the Wildcats pulled out another close win over CSP 13-10 in the Superior Dome.

PIERSON SNAGS 200 CAREER DRAW CONTROLS
On the weekend, senior Sarah Pierson made the headlines by eclipsing 200 career draw controls with her CSP and St. Leo totals. She also set the single-game draw control record twice in a row, securing 12 on Friday and 14 on Sunday. She leads the GLIAC with 45 draw controls on the year and is fifth in the country with 7.50 draw controls per game. She is fourth in the league with 14 ground balls and is also CSP's scoring leader with 10 goals and is third on the team with six caused turnovers. She scored three goals each game and had a seven point weekend offensively.

MOYNIHAN & SEIFERT PACE OFFENSE
Molly Moynihan also had a big weekend with 10 points, registering four on Friday with three assists before a six point Sunday contest with three goals and three assists. The younger Moynihan is now tied for the team lead with 17 points and is second on the team in both goals (9) and assists (8) through six games. Moynihan and Seifert are tied for eighth in the GLIAC in total points. Seifert is 23rd in the country with 11 assists, as well.

HUEBNER OFF TO GREAT START
In goal, freshman Maddy Huebner continues the stellar start to her career with back-to-back 14 save performances, tied for fourth most in a game in team history. Although she took the loss in goal and evened her record at 2-2, she faced 40 shots on Friday and 30 on Sunday and registered above .500 save percentages in each outing. She's one of the top statistical goaltenders in the league, ranking second (GLIAC) and 15th in DII in save percentage (.512) and fourth (GLIAC) and 27th nationally in goals against average (9.85) which are both ahead of the school career record pace.

PASSING SQUAD
On the year, the Golden Bears rank 19th in the country with 7.17 assists per game and have secured assists on over half of their goals in the last five contests with at least six each game. Lex Seifert leads the team with 11 followed by Molly Moynihan with eight and Sara McNicoll with five with 11 different players receiving credit for an assist as CSP has assisted on 43 of 73 goals on the year.

CLIMBING THE LEADERBOARD
Sara McNicoll ranks fourth in career history in points (55), followed by Katie Moynihan in sixth with 53 and Lex Seifert in eighth with 43. In goals, K.Moynihan is fourth with 42 followed by McNicoll in eighth with 28, Pierson in ninth with 26 and Mary Keating in 10th with 24. Staying on the offensive side, McNicoll is fifth in career assists (27) followed closely by Seifert in sixth (25) while Erica Peterson (14) and Keating (12) round out the last two spots in the top-10. In 29 games played, McNicoll is in a close second in career assist per game average at 0.93 per game, just 0.01 behind record holder Kallie LaValle who averaged 0.94 in 32 games.

On the draw, Sarah Pierson in just two partial seasons has already ascended to third all-time in just 13 games played with 85, only 24 away from Lexi Stanley's career record (109) which was amassed in 37 games. Pierson averages a program-best 6.54 draw controls per game, with Stanley in second at 2.95. Lex Seifert and Mary Keating are also in the top-10 with 35 and 30 career draw controls, ranking seventh and eighth, respectively.

ABOUT THE LAKERS
Grand Valley State is the GLIAC Preseason favorite, picked first in the coaches' poll and the only GLIAC team currently ranked in the IWLCA Top-25 with the ninth ranking in the country. The Lakers are six-time GLIAC Champions, winning the league title six years in a row from 2013 to 2018 before Indianapolis captured the last league title in 2019 before heading to the GLVC. They were 3-1 in 2020 when the pandemic forced the early end to the season, falling 14-11 to Indianapolis in the season opener before wins at McKendree, Lindenwood and Maryville. The Lakers didn't play a home game in 2020, and finally had their six game winning streak snapped on March 21 this year in their home opening 9-7 loss to #3 Indianapolis, their first home game since 2019.

Prior to the loss to UIndy, GVSU had rattled off wins at Tiffin (21-3), Findlay (18-4) and Indiana PA (14-8) in a strong start to the year.

Abbi O'Neal leads the team with 21 points on 17 goals followed by Olivia Esposito with 14 points on 11 goals. O'Neal, Molly Bursinger and Chloe Foley each have 17 draw controls while O'Neal's seven ground balls and five caused turnovers also lead the team.

In goal, Audrey Maloney leads the team with a 9.15 goals against average and .413 save percentage. She's started three of the four games (176:58) and has all four goalie decisions, making 19 saves. Abigail Dengler also has played in three of the four games with a start, recording over 63 minutes in net with five saves and 14 goals allowed.