ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse team (5-5, 1-1 GLIAC) fell 17-10 against the No. 17 Lakers of Grand Valley State in a hard-fought battle in the Concordia Dome on Friday evening.
Five players were able to find the net in the loss including Kennedy Bolander, Morgan Haapala, Sara Kaiser, a hat-trick outing for Anna Fisher and a four-goal game for Susie Monson.
It was the Golden Bears who came out swinging early, just 32 seconds into the game Monson scored her first goal off a game-opening draw control by Bolander to take the early lead over the Lakers.
Just a short ten seconds later Monson was able to score her second goal of the game to extend the lead 2-0 in just under a minute.
The early lead marked the first time in program history that CSP held any type of lead over Grand Valley State in any meeting.
A minute later the Lakers snuck one by the CSP defense to cut into the lead and get their name on the board.
Fisher responded two minutes later to once again go up by two with an assist by Kaiser.
Grand Valley State was not going to go away and proceeded to go on a 6-0 scoring run to end the first quarter in the Lakers favor and start the second quarter riffling off two more goals.
Fisher was able to cut into the electric GVSU offense and earn her second goal of the day to try and cut down the lead.
The Lakers would go on to finish the second quarter on a 3-1 scoring spree with a single Golden Bear goal breaking in from Kaiser to score her 16th goal of the season.
Down 10-5 at the end of the first half, the Navy and Gold showed no signs of throwing in the towel. It took Bolander just 42 seconds into the third quarter to score her seventh goal of the season.
A trio of back-to-back goals from the Lakers increased the lead 13-6 to end the third quarter in the blue and white's favor.
Monson tallied her third goal of the game to start the fourth quarter to mark her fourth hat-trick of the season and her 13th of her career.
An even fourth quarter was not enough for the Golden Bears to regain the lead including another Monson goal and goals from both Fisher and Haapala to suffer the 17-10 loss to the Lakers.
Fisher's third goal in the fourth quarter marked her sixth hat-trick of the season and 12th overall.
Marge Lucio got the start in the Net for the Navy and Gold where she made five saves before Katie Colleran came in after the first-half. Colleran tallied a career-high eight saves to bring her season total to 38.
Monson added to her tremendous day leading the team with seven draw controls while adding two ground balls and six shots.
Clarie Flahaven led the Golden Bear defense with three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
As a team, Grand Valley State edged out Concordia 18-15 in ground balls and 17-14 in draw controls while holding the 39-22 shot advantage.
The Golden Bears will look to quickly bounce back when they return to the field on Sunday to face the Panthers of Davenport in the Concordia Dome. Action is set to start at 12 p.m.
