ST. PAUL, Minn. - This weekend, Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse (4-5, 0-1 GLIAC) continues conference play, hosting #16 Grand Valley State (4-4, 0-0 GLIAC) on Friday at 6 p.m. before welcoming Davenport (1-7, 0-0 GLIAC) on Sunday at noon. Both games will be played indoors on campus at the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium.

This weekend's home games are Concordia's only two-game home weekend set of the season, and are also the GLIAC openers for GVSU and Davenport.

STREAMING INFORMATION: CSP LACROSSE JOINS FloSports
With the opening of Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference play, Concordia-St. Paul's remaining three home games (all league games) will be carried online through FloSports, the official live stream provider of the GLIAC. FloSports is a paid subscription service where users are able to stream live sporting events on their desktop, tablet or mobile phone using the latest version of Chrome (recommended), Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge; or by downloading the FloSports app from the App Store (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV), Google Play (Android phones and tablets), Roku Channel Store (All Roku devices) and Amazon Fire (Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick).

CSP's lacrosse production with FloSports will feature a 720p broadcast with a single camera elevated from the sideline at midfield with the play-by-play audio from professional broadcaster Dan Flanagan, a broadcasting graduate from Fordham University in New York. Flanagan is a St. Paul native with 15 years of experience calling Golden Bear athletics for all sports that feature a live webcast. 

For more information about the GLIAC's agreement with FloSports, view the online press release prior to the school year.

BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
Fans are encouraged to buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.

DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.

TOUGH SLATE
The Golden Bears have faced a challenging schedule in 2023, the fifth-ranked NCAA DII strength of schedule with a combined opposing record of 39-12 (not including results against CSP, and excluding non-DII opponents). Similarly, GVSU boasts the #2 strength of schedule and Davenport the #8 strength of schedule.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN BEARS
Concordia features the 12th-ranked shot percentage in the country, leading the GLIAC at .505 while also leading the league in assists per game (4.89), caused turnovers per game (9.0) and ground balls per game (18.7).

Freshman Lauren Sheets is 15th in the country and leads the GLIAC with 30 goals and is 27th in the nation and leading the GLIAC with 36 points. Senior goalie Candace McDole ranks second in the conference in save percentage (.453, 34th DII) and saves (67, 23rd DII). Freshman Claire Flahaven holds a league-leading 1.44 caused turnovers per game, as well.

Concordia's attack has six players with at least 11 points with five being freshmen, and five having dished out either six or seven assists: Sheets (30g, 6a), Susie Monson (12g, 6a), Morgan Haapala (6g, 7a), Kayleigh Nelson (6g, 7a) and Sara Kaiser (9g, 2a) joined by junior Taylor Preece (6g, 6a).

Monson leads the team on the draw with 26 draw controls while Flahaven tops the squad with 13 caused turnovers and 18 ground balls.

In goal, McDole holds a .453 save percentage, 12.73 goals against average and has secured 67 saves against 200 shots faced in eight games (381:38) while junior Maddy Huebner has performed well in four games (one start) with a .538 save percentage, 6.82 goals against average and 21 saves against 51 shots faced in 158:22.

LAST TIME OUT: CSP FALLS AT NMU
In a closely contested GLIAC opener, Concordia-St. Paul fell into an early 3-0 hole and was unable to climb out despite not trailing by more than four goals throughout play. Freshman Lauren Sheets matched her season-high with seven points, scoring four times and assisting on three others while junior Taylor Preece added four points with a goal while tying her career-high with three assists for the second-straight game. Three other Golden Bears, all freshmen, put in two point efforts with Kennedy Bolander scoring twice and Susie Monson and Sara Kaiser each netting a goal with an assist.

Senior goalie Candace McDole secured her fifth double-digit saves performance of the year with 12 saves to match her season-high while facing 30-plus shots for the fifth time on the year.

CSP fell to 7-4 against the Wildcats with five straight games in the series being decided by five goals or less. They'll meet again in the regular season finale on Sunday, April 16 at Sea Foam Stadium with a noon start time in CSP's lone outdoor stadium game.

SERIES HISTORY VS GVSU
The Golden Bears are seeking their first win against the Lakers with an 0-8 all-time record against GVSU as the Lakers have been ranked in the IWLCA Top-25 in all eight matchups. CSP has yet to score more than five in a game against GVSU, while the Lakers have scored at least 15 goals in every meeting. Last year's 15-4 defeat at home and 17-5 road loss in Allendale, Michigan were the two closes margins in the all-time series. GVSU has been to CSP three times, 2018 (22-5), 2019 (17-4) and 2022 (15-4).

ABOUT THE LAKERS
Grand Valley State has been nationally-ranked by the IWLCA in every poll this season, scoring a 14-12 season-opening win at Flagler against a team that has since moved into the top-25, winning at #24 Colorado Mesa (13-8) and #22 Mercyhurst (17-2) while also adding a 19-10 win at Findlay. GVSU has also registered losses against some of the top teams in the country: at #10 Rollins (15-11), at #8 Regis (14-10), at home against #1 Indianapolis (13-12) and at home against Maryville, who has moved into the top-25 following a 15-12 win over GVSU.

The result has added up to the Lakers facing the second-ranked strength of schedule in NCAA Division II women's lacrosse with past opposition accumulating a 44-9 combined record (not including result vs GVSU)

GVSU has had a program since 2012, and despite this year's 4-4 record in non-conference play, the program only has one other .500 or worse finishing, going 8-9 in 2017 in a season that the Lakers won a GLIAC Regular Season Championship with a 6-1 record in league play prior to CSP's entry into the league as an affiliate member. The four losses is the most since finishing 13-5 in the 2018 season, and GVSU has never lost more than one conference game in a season while winning nine-straight GLIAC Regular Season titles along with six GLIAC Tournament titles along the way.

Five players have scored between 20 and 30 points for the Lakers in a balanced offensive attack led by Kate DeYoung's 29 points with a team-high 20 goals and tied for the team lead with nine assists. Maddy Champagne adds 27 points (18g, 9a) and the second-most draw controls (34) on the roster while Molly Bursinger has 23 points (16g, 7a) and team-highs with 41 draw controls, 16 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers. Bursinger is leading the GLIAC and ranks in the top-30 in the country with 5.0 draw controls per game.

The Lakers feature a three-player committee in goal led by Kaylyn Cater's seven games played and four starts, registering 30 saves while facing 129 shots in 265:35 minutes of play, securing a .323 save percentage. Audrey Maloney (5 GP, 2 GS) has 14 saves and a 10.3 goals against average in 134 minutes and Sarah Krause (2 GP, 1 GS) has five saves, a .625 save percentage and a 2.24 goals against average in just over 80 minutes of play.

As a team, GVSU ranks 15th in the country in fewest turnovers per game with 14.25 per contest, and 16th in the country with a .586 draw control percentage.

SERIES HISTORY VS DAVENPORT
Concordia holds a 6-4 record against the Panthers, with the six wins representing the program's second-most against any other squad since the lacrosse team was founded in 2017. CSP won the first five contests against DU with the Panthers rallying recently with wins in four of the last five meetings. Last year, the teams split in the regular season with Davenport, ranked #23 at the time, winning 12-10 in Michigan before CSP picked up a 15-12 home win two weeks later. Davenport secured the season series with a playoff win 14-13 in the GLIAC Tournament, however.

Concordia and Davenport have played eight of the 10 games to a margin of six goals or less with four of the games decided by three goals or less including all three last year.

CSP is 3-2 at home against Davenport, winning the most recent meeting last year in the Concordia Dome 15-12.

ABOUT THE PANTHERS
Although the Panthers have a 1-7 record during non-conference play, they've had a mix of nationally-ranked opponents, falling at #14 Lynn (18-4), #19 Embry-Riddle (16-9) and #1 Indianapolis (16-7) and now-ranked Maryville (L, 18-5) and closely contested losses at Quincy (9-7), at McKendree (12-9) and at Walsh (8-7).

Davenport secured its lone win 18-3 at Tiffin before dropping its home opening weekend to #1 Indianapolis and Maryville last weekend. The Panthers will also hit the road this Thursday for a non-conference game at Findlay before coming to St. Paul on Sunday.

Like the Lakers, the Panthers have faced a stiff schedule, going up against the eighth-ranked NCAA DII strength of schedule with a combined 43-17 opponent record.

The Panthers are led offensively by two players in double-figures for scoring: Blakely Malpass with 22 points on 18 goals and four assists along with Ayanna Turrubiates with 16 goals. Kylie Pettus leads the roster with 36 draw controls followed by Turrubiates with 27.

Defensively, Christine Steffes leads the team with 10 caused turnovers and 24 ground balls and Maisy Latus has been the lone goaltender with a .474 save percentage and 12.5 goals against average, securing 90 saves in eight games. Latus ranks third in the nation with 90 saves and 25th in the country in save percentage while Steffes leads the GLIAC and is 35th in the country with 3.0 ground balls per game.