Falcons Fall Victim to Fouls Against Illinois Tech

MEQUON, Wis. – The CUW women's lacrosse team took on the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks in their regular-season finale.

The Scarlet Hawks came out victorious in the battle of the birds with a 16-15 final score.

Sophomore Eliana Fuchs (Brookfield, Wis.) got the Falcons off the ground with a free-position goal with five minutes gone in the first quarter.

Illinois Tech answered two minutes later with a free-position goal of their own.

The Blue and White scored the next four in a row with goals from Fuchs, junior Colleen Gilligan (Colborne, Ont.) assisted by freshman Natalie Mackrell (Stuttgart, Germany), and a pair from freshman Kami McCardle (Jackson, Wis.) with one assisted by Mackrell.

The Scarlet Hawks snagged two more goals and cut the deficit to two until Fuchs netted her third of the contest with a minute and a half left in the first quarter. Illinois Tech finished off the quarter with a goal at the 33-second mark.

The teams went into the first break with a score of 6-4 in favor of the Falcons.

The Scarlet Hawks tied the game up out of the break with a pair of goals to push the game to even at six.

The Falcons answered with a pair of unassisted goals scored by sophomore Olivia Niego (La Grange, Ill.) and junior Grace Wilshire (Pittsburg, Pa.).  

The Scarlet Hawks crept back to tie up the game at eight with another pair of goals at the end of the second.

The flock ended the half on a high note with a free-position goal from Niego to enter halftime with the 9-8 lead.

Illinois Tech netted a man-up goal and followed it up later with an even-strength goal to take the 10-9 lead.

Wilshire netted her second goal of the game to tie it up at 10.

The Scarlet Hawks answered with their second man-up goal for the one-point lead.

Fuchs finished off the third and started the fourth with her fourth and fifth goals of the matchup to take the 12-11 lead.

It was back and forth all fourth quarter. Illinois Tech tied the game at 12 with a goal, but the Falcons responded with a man-up goal from Fuchs on a free-position shot.

Illinois Tech scored a pair of goals with one of them a man up to take the 14-13 lead.

Wilshire and Fuchs connected for the game-tying goal with McCardle and Gilligan scoring the go-ahead goal late into the fourth quarter.

The Scarlet Hawks fought back with a pair of goals to end the matchup with a final score of 15-16 in favor of Illinois Tech.

Fuchs, McCardle, and Wilshire all recorded hat tricks with Fuchs scoring six of the Falcon goals and McCardle and Wilshire both scoring three. Wilshire came into the matchup with one career goal but quadrupled that total with three in the matchup today.

Freshman Madisen Meyers (Rosemount, Minn.) led the Falcon defense with 12 saves.

The Falcons fell victim to fouls with 34 compared to the Scarlet Hawk six and five yellow cards to the Scarlet Hawk three.

The Falcons claimed the fourth spot in the conference tournament with a better goal differential after a long list of tie-breaking procedures proved unsuccessful.

The Blue and White will compete at Aurora on Tuesday in the NACC Semifinals.