ST. PAUL, Minn. - Just days removed from practicing in high 80s-degree weather, Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse (6-9, 2-4 GLIAC) battled temperatures in the 30s, winds consistently in the 20s along with snow and ice, falling to Northern Michigan (9-5, 3-1 GLIAC) 11-7 on Sunday afternoon at Sea Foam Stadium.
It was both the home and regular season finale, and ironically the only game that the Golden Bears played outside at Sea Foam Stadium this season, and against an opponent that also plays all of its home games indoors. Concordia will now await official GLIAC Tournament seeding with the conference tournament semifinals being played on Friday, April 28 at the top seed campus site with semifinal winners squaring off on Sunday, April 30 at the same location, regardless of semifinal outcome.
On senior day, Concordia's lone senior
Candace McDole moved into a tie for second place in team history for single-season saves with 133, matching Katie Lottsfeldt's 2017 freshman season and trailing Lottsfeldt's 2019 record of 141 by just eight. With 12 saves today, McDole has now recorded 689 for her career, inching towards the 700 milestone as she hit the double-digit saves total for the 10th time this season, fourth time in a row and sixth time in the last seven games. She also added five ground balls and had a pair of caused turnovers.
Offensively,
Lauren Sheets led the club with her 10th hat trick of the season, giving her 43 goals on the season to tie for fourth-most in a single season while her 52 points is the seventh-most in a season in team history.
Freshman
Susie Monson had a strong all-around effort, securing a game-high six draw controls, adding four ground balls and a game-high three caused turnovers while adding a goal.
Freshman
Kayleigh Nelson also had a two-point performance for CSP, scoring once and adding an assist as seven different players registered at least a point on the day.
Northern Michigan was led by hat tricks from Kaitlyn Bridger and Madi Bast while Minnie Bittell added three points on two goals an assist. NMU secured a 13-8 edge in draw controls led by Bittell's six while Bridger added five.
While McDole was strong in the CSP cage, her counterpart from NMU, Hannah Melander, had just as solid of a day for the visitors as she recorded 12 saves while allowing seven goals to secure the win.
While the Golden Bears started out strong with a 2-0 lead in the first three minutes of play, the Wildcats countered with a 3-0 run in what turned into a stretch of play in the first half that saw NMU scored eight of 10 goals to take an 8-4 lead including a goal with just two seconds to play until halftime.
From there, Concordia wasn't able to cut it any closer than a 3-goal margin as NMU answered all three of CSP's second half goals.
