North Central Escapes with an Overtime Win

NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The Concordia Wisconsin women's lacrosse team fell in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals escaped with an 11-10 overtime victory to improve to 2-0 on the year and send the Falcons to 1-3.

Cardinals struck first on Saturday with a pair of goals in the first three minutes.

The Falcons stormed down the field and freshman Katelyn Cardinale (Mount Laurel, N.J.) snuck past a defender.

North Central struck again 35 seconds after the Concordia goal.

Katelyn Cardinale struck again on a free-position shot.

Two minutes later, sophomore Kami McCardle (Jackson, Wis.) stole the ball and found Katelyn Cardinale in front of the net for her third goal of the game.

Junior Eliana Fuchs (Brookfield, Wis.) found the back of the net on a free-position shot to give the Falcons the lead.

North Central scored the following two goals to retake the lead at 5-4 heading into the second quarter.

The Cardinals scored two goals in the first two minutes of the second quarter to push the lead to 7-4.

Junior Andra Hansen (Seattle, Wash.) found an opening and crashed the net off a pass from junior Olivia Niego (La Grange, Ill.) to stop the NCC scoring streak.

The Falcons had goals from Eliana Fuchs and Katelyn Cardinale in the final minute of the quarter to toe the game at seven at halftime.

A free position shot from Eliana Fuchs gave the Falcons the lead in the fourth quarter.

NCC tied it up on a free-position shot six minutes later.

Olivia Niego sprinted right past the defense and gave the Falcons the lead again.

Eliana Fuchs connected on an open shot in front of the net to give the Falcons a 10-8 lead with 2:30 left.

North Central made it a one-goal game with 1:44 left and tied the game 22 seconds later.

With the game tied, the Falcons won the draw control but had a shot go wide and the teams went into overtime.

The Cardinals won the draw control to start overtime and scored on a free-position shot to win the game.

The Red and White held an 18-16 advantage in shots on goal on Saturday after both teams finished with 23 shots each.

Sophomore Madisen Myers (Rosemount, Minn.) finished with seven saves.

Eliana Fuchs led the flock with seven shots.

Katelyn Cardinale collected a team-high three ground balls and sophomore Ava Karlov (Naperville, Ill.) caused three turnovers.

Saturday was the first overtime game for the Falcons since 2019. 

The Falcons will soak up the sun and compete in South Carolina on Tuesday against Muhlenberg.