Women's Lacrosse clinches share of MWLC regular season title

MEQUON, Wis. – The hours and hours of practice, weight rooms sessions and varying results over the past four-plus seasons have finally culminated in a Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference regular season title for Concordia University Wisconsin. The Falcons cruised past Wartburg College, 19-2, on Sunday afternoon at Fitting Field.

CUW also clinched the top seed in the upcoming MWLC Tournament (May 1-2), which they have the privilege of hosting. The Falcons set a multitude of records in the win, one that was on Senior Day and in front of their many loyal parents. They do have one MWLC game remaining on the schedule – at Illinois Institute of Technology on April 23 – but no matter the result the Falcons will hold the head-to-head tiebreaker for at least a share of the MWLC regular season title.

Meanwhile, on a beautiful, yet windy day, CUW broke three game records in another lopsided victory. Senior Hannah Redden (Libertyville, Ill.) accumulated nine points, including seven assists, to set both individual program game records. She set the program's game record for assists in the first half. The Falcons also tied team game record with 14 helpers, which was previously set on April 26, 2014 against Loras College.

A day after initiating the running-clock rule with six-plus minutes to play before halftime against Cornell College, the Falcons were even more aggressive on the offensive end. They engaged the running-clock rule with 10:29 to play before halftime and continued to find the back of the net, leading 17-0 at the intermission.

Senior Hayley Peppers (Franktown, Colo.) also had a career game with eight points (career-high-tying five goals and three assists), to go along with three ground balls, seven draw control wins and two caused turnovers. Senior Steph Barry (Gurnee, Ill.) was also dominant on the offensive end with a career-high-tying five goals. Senior Emily Heckendorf (Merrill, Wis.) scored twice and picked up three ground balls.

Freshman Allison Kurek (Chicago, Ill.) scored just once – a free-position marker – but stuffed the stat sheet again with four ground balls, four draw control wins and four caused turnovers. Junior Jenna Brown (Roseville, Minn.) picked up a career-high eight ground balls, which ranks second all-time in program history and was one shy of the record. Junior Katherine Pauletti (Roseville, Minn.) forced a career-high-tying three caused turnovers on the defensive end of the field. As well, senior Hannah Aton (Columbus, Ind.) picked up four ground balls.

CUW controlled the first-year Knights on both ends of the field and finished with a 33-9 advantage in shots (25-3 on goal), 34-19 lead in ground balls, 17-6 edge in draw control wins and forced 28 turnovers of which 16 were caused. The Falcons were also 3-of-5 on free-position attempts and held Wartburg to 0-of-3.

The Knights (3-9, 2-2 MWLC) were led by Jill Sadler and Megan Howe who each scored a goal. Elora Otero picked up a team-high six ground balls and caused a game-high-tying four turnovers. Karolina Paulsen made six saves in goal.

CUW steps away from MWLC play for three-consecutive non-conference games beginning on Tuesday at Robert Morris University at 4 pm.