ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse team (2-2, 0-0 GLIAC) dropped a 18-11 battle against the Bearcats of McKendree on Sunday afternoon at the Concordia Dome in their final home non-conference match up.
Senior Susie Monson became just the fourth player in program history to hit the 100 career goal milestone, scoring the first goal of the game. She joins Kailey Heinl, Alina Boyce and Maddie Hentges in the 100 club and is the first player to reach the honor since 2020.
Monson also extended her program-leading career assist record with two to sit at 60 career assists and added seven draw controls to her program lead of 259.
Freshman Shelby Marik and Alayna Roehl each recorded a hat-trick, marking a second-straight multi-goal game for Mark and first career hat-trick for Roehl. The freshman duo has combined for 16 goals so far this season.
Concordia scored six man-up goals which ties the program single-game record and is the most since March 8, 2024 against Fort Lewis. CSP also added five free-position goals, ranking fifth in single-game history, the most since April 5, 2023 against Davenport.
The Golden Bears found early momentum, scoring their first goal of the day just under two minutes in. Monson found the net on a free-position shot to hit her career milestone.
Concordia rolled off five straight shots before a Bearcat penalty gave Shelby Hansen a free-position shot, scoring her fifth goal of the season.
Just 30 seconds later, CSP capitalized on another McKendree foul to give Roehl a free-position goal to take an early 3-0 lead.
With their backs against the wall early, the Bearcats clawed back fast, scoring their first goal of the game exactly one minute later.
With their momentum building, McKendree capitalized and found the net quickly to start a four-goal scoring run to end the first quarter in their favor 5-3.
The Golden Bears came out with a big response to start the second quarter, putting together a three-goal run to retake the lead with back-to-back goals from Marik and Roehl.
Capitalizing on opportunities was the theme of the game for the Bearcats who added three unanswered goals to head into the break up 8-6.
It was all McKendree in the third quarter, out-scoring Concordia 6-1 and never looking back. It was Kaysawn Carlson who broke up the scoring but CSP was unable to get stops in the offensive zone.
A spark for the Golden Bears offensive attack to start the fourth quarter saw Marik add her third goal of the game and freshman Lauren Barnacle add her third goal of the season, breaking into the McKendree lead 14-9.
The Bearcats would have no time to allow a Navy and Gold comeback and added back-to-back goals to regain a 16-9 lead late in the fourth.
A pair of goals from Roehl and freshman Jayde Isaacson would not be enough and two more from McKendree would end the game 18-11 in favor of the Bearcats. Isaacson's goal marked her first collegiate goal and her fourth point of the season.
Both teams saw a combined 81 shots and 58 shots on goal. McKendree slightly edged Concordia 32-26 in shots on goal and 42-39 in shots.
Junior Marge Lucio earned her third start of the season where she made 14 saves, her most saves since a 22 save performance against Northern Michigan during the 2024 season.
As a team, the Navy and Gold went 13-16 on clear attempts and 5-9 on free-position shots.
Marik notched a team-leading 10 shots with Roehl seeing six shots on goal.
Anna Palony and Lucio each recorded three ground balls and Natalie Brownfield and Claire Flahaven forced two caused turnovers to lead the defensive effort for CSP.
The Golden Bears will hit the road for the first time this season when they return to action on Friday. They will face the Hawks of Quincy at 2 p.m. at QU Stadium in Quincy, Ill. before traveling to St. Joseph, Mo. for a Sunday match up against the Griffons of Missouri Western State.
