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Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Box Score

Mar. 20, 2010 - The 2010 season began amid a surprise spring snowstorm for the North Central College women's lacrosse team on Saturday, and a flurry of early goals put the Cardinals in front before the Linfield College (Ore.) Wildcats emerged with a second-half deluge and came out on top, 15-11.

North Central got in front early with the game's first goal, as Shannon Prince found the back of the net after less than two minutes had elapsed. The Wildcats (1-4) scored twcie before Amy Frazzini tallied two unanswered goals to give the hosts the lead once again, 3-2.

Linfield's Taylor Fisher tied the contest with 21:38 left in the first half, but Jessica Seggman and Frazzini both scored in an 18-second stretch to give the Cardinals their largest lead. Natalie Vivacqua answered a Wildcat goal with one of her own to leave the score at 6-4 with 13:129 left, though Linfield's Isabelle Burke scored 19 seconds later to halve the deficit once again. Prince put away a free-position shot with 7:44 remaining, and North Central went into halftime ahead, 7-5.

After the break, Linfield began to reap the benefits of a much longer bench, scoring three times in the first minute of the second half and scoring nine straight overall to take a 14-7 lead with 7:10 remaining. The Cardinals made a late comeback attempt that yielded four goals in the final seven minutes. Frazzini and Vivacqua got the rally started with a goal each, and Caroline Gully scored twice in the final minute.

The 11 goals tallied by North Central are more than the team scored against any varsity opponent in its inaugural season last year. 

Frazzini led all scorers with four goals, while Prince, Vivacqua and Gully each scored twice. Gully also recorded 12 ground-ball pickups and goalkeeper Elise Manzie finished with 10 saves. Anna Gorciak and Mariah Jones each scored three times for Linfield.

North Central travels to Tennessee on Monday to play Sewanee University, then heads to Birmingham, Ala., for games on Wednesday agains Birmingham-Southern College and Thursday against the University of Dallas.