ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse (5-6) will tackle its final non-conference challenge of the 2023 season this Friday with an 11 a.m. contest at Missouri Western State (5-4) at Spratt Memorial Stadium inS t. Joseph, Missouri.

LIVE COVERAGE
The game will be broadcast by MWSU on the GLVC Sports Network, with a link to watch live on a personal computer or by downloading the GLVC Sports Network app on Google Play, the App Store, Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku or Android TV smart devices.

Fans can also follow along with live stats.

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears split a home GLIAC weekend set, falling 17-10 to #16 Grand Valley State before erasing a 7-goal second quarter deficit in a 15-14 win over Davenport on Sunday to score their first GLIAC win of the season.

In the Sunday win, CSP used a 13-2 scoring run from the second through fourth quarter spanning more than half of the contest. Within the larger run, Concordia was able to claim the lead thanks to an 8-0 spurt from late in the third quarter to 5:04 in the fourth, claiming a 15-11 lead with just over five minutes left.

Sara Kaiser led CSP's comeback with a 4-goal performance to earn CSP Female Athlete of the Week honors while Lauren Sheets scored back-to-back goals in the fourth quarter to knot the game at 11-11 with 12:37 to play.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN BEARS
The freshmen leading the attack for Concordia-St. Paul have thrived in their first years as college players as six of the seven players with double-digit point totals are in their debut season, with junior Taylor Preece and her 16 points (8g, 8a) the exception to the group.

Lauren Sheets leads the team with 42 points on 34 goals and eight assists. She's one of five players with at least six assists on the year, with four of the five being in their freshman season and the exception again being Preece. She leads the GLIAC and is 25th in the nation in goals scored (34), leads the GLIAC and is 41st in the country with 42 total points and is sixth in the conference with her eight assists. She's scored multiple points in 10 consecutive games, has scored a goal in every game this season and has 5-plus points four times.

CSP's top distributor is Kayleigh Nelson, with her 10 assists ranking second in the league. She's also tied for third on the squad with 16 total points and second on the team with 20 draw controls and 12 caused turnovers. Nelson has seven games with multiple points and is coming off a weekend with four ground balls and four caused turnovers.

Sara Kaiser emerged into the starting lineup in Sunday's win over Davenport, scoring her season-high four goals in the comeback win. On the year, Kaiser is second on the team with 15 goals and tied for second with 18 points while contributing multiple points in six consecutive contests. In addition to her season-high with four goals on Sunday, she added season-highs of four ground balls and two caused turnovers, as well.

The Golden Bear draw has been most effective with freshman Susie Monson's speed and aggression in the midfield, leading the team with 28 draw controls. Monson is also tied for second on the team in points with 18, scoring 12 goals with six assists.

Defensively, freshman Claire Flahaven leads the team with 18 caused turnovers, leading the GLIAC with 1.64 per game while her 20 ground balls lead all non-goalies on the team, one more than sophomore Meghan McGowan's 19 with McGowan also ranking third on the roster with 11 ground balls.

In goal, senior Candace McDole had one of her top individual statistical performances against GVSU on Friday, registering a double-double with 19 saves and 10 ground balls, coming in just one save and two ground balls shy of the program single-game records held by former goalie Katie Lottsfeldt. McDole has 11 or more saves in six games this year and she leads the GLIAC with 2.70 ground balls per game, is second in the GLIAC and 19th in the country with 88 saves and second in the conference and 34th in the nation with a .451 save percentage.

She's backed up by junior Maddy Huebner who holds a stellar 6.99 goals against average in 197:25 of play across five games and a start in the cage, securing 25 saves with a .521 save percentage.

As a team, the Golden Bears are holding their own against the 21st-ranked Division II strength of schedule among 109 programs around the country with their DII opposition holding a 51-30 collective record.

SERIES HISTORY: CSP 1, MWSU 0
The Golden Bears and Griffons have met just once as MWSU is in its third year as a DII program. CSP topped MWSU 13-8 in the 2022 season opener at the Concordia Dome in a game that CSP led throughout as Hailey Hartlage scored the first goal of the game two and a half minutes to play and never looked back. Hartlage was one of four players to produce a two-goal game, with Molly Moynihan leading the team with three points on two goals and an assist. Hartlage also led CSP with five caused turnovers and tied for the team lead with three draw controls and four ground balls. Maddy Huebner picked up the win with seven saves in just over 40 minutes while Candace McDole also saw 20 minutes of action protecting the net.

Madison Brady led MWSU with three goals while Amani Robinson scored twice.

ABOUT THE GRIFFONS
In its third season as a Division II program, Missouri Western holds a 5-4 record and has won three of its last four games heading into this Friday's matchup. MWSU scored three-straight road wins in the southeast, topping a program receiving consideration for the Top-25 Lee 11-8, winning 18-7 at Tusculum and 17-2 at Shorter on a tour through Tennessee and Georgia before falling 17-15 at receiving votes Alabama-Huntsville last Friday.

They've faced two common opponents with CSP, falling 16-13 in the season opener at Northern Michigan and falling 12-11 at Maryville.

Karlin York leads MWSU with 42 points on 27 goals and 15 assists while Sam Pruitt (20g, 16a), Madison Brady (28g, 5a) and Jordan Coulon (15g, 7a) each have 20-plus points on the year. Coulon's 34 draw controls are second on the team to Mikaela Ness, with Ness leading the team with 11 caused turnovers, while York has a team-high 23 ground balls among non-goalies. Mackenzie Porter has registered 70 saves with a 9.06 goals against average while playing all 530:03 of the team's minutes in goal with a .467 save percentage and a team-high 37 ground balls.