Falcons Feast at Elmhurst

ELMHURST, Ill. – The Concordia Wisconsin women's lacrosse team soared in the season opener on Friday evening. The Blue and White opened the 2023 campaign with a commanding 15-2 victory on the road at Elmhurst to start the season at 1-0.

The first goal of the season came from freshman Katelyn Cardinale (Mount Laurel, N.J.) after she crashed the net after an assist from junior Andra Hansen (Seattle, Wash.) for her first collegiate goal.

CUW struck again 27 seconds later on a free position shot from freshman Ella Maltby (Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.) for her first collegiate goal.

Junior Savannah Schweiger (Eagle, Wis.) found junior Olivia Niego (La Grange, Ill.) in front of the net for another goal with 11:50 left in the first quarter.

Katelyn Cardinale struck again when she snuck past the defender and tossed the ball in the net off an Andra Hansen assist.

Junior Eliana Fuchs (Brookfield, Wis.) broke right past the defender and put the Falcons up 5-0.

Fuchs then carved up the Elmhurst defense when she zig-zagged past the defense and scored a goal down a player.

The Falcons held a 6-0 lead after the first quarter.

The Blue and White charged down the field and sophomore Kami McCardle (Jackson, Wis.) started the scoring at 13:57 in the second quarter.

Eliana Fuchs earned the hat trick after she crashed the net and snuck the ball past the keeper.

Elmhurst stopped the streak with a free-position goal.

Kami McCardle beat the clock and scored with 3.5 seconds left in the second quarter to take a 9-1 lead into halftime.  

Junior Anna Gong (Phoenix, Ariz.) set up in front of the net and put the Falcons up 10 -1 with an assist to Eliana Fuchs.

The Bluejays scored with 10 seconds left to cut the CUW lead to 10-2 heading into the fourth quarter.

Sophomore Ava Karlov (Naperville, Ill.) connected on a sharp-angled shot to start the fourth-quarter scoring off a pass from Olivia Niego.

Olivia Niego then scored the next two goals in the contest.

Eliana Fuchs once again crashed the net and scored to put the Falcons up 14-2 off an assist from Anna Gong.

Andra Hansen closed the scoring with 1:05 left in the game.

Sophomore Madisen Myers (Rosemount, Minn.) had seven saves in the victory.

Ava Karlov created issues for Elmhurst and caused four turnovers in the victory. Olivia Niego also caused three turnovers.

Katelyn Cardinale collected four draw controls on Friday evening.

The Falcons were successful on 18 of their 22 clears.

CUW held a 38-9 advantage in shots on Friday. Eliana Fuchs led the flock with eight shots.

The victory was the first opening-day victory for Concordia since 2019.

The Falcons look to continue their winning ways on Saturday in Indiana at Franklin.