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Box Score

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (May 4, 2013) - After wiping out a five-goal deficit in the second half, the North Central College women's lacrosse team was turned away in its bid for a Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference (MWLC) Tournament championship on Saturday, as the best season in the program's five-year history came to an end with a 10-9 loss to Augustana College at Thorson-Lucken Field.

Participating in their first conference tournament title game, the Cardinals (12-5) had already nearly doubled the previous school record for wins and nearly bagged the MWLC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship before falling victim to two late Augustana goals.

The Vikings (16-3) scored four of the game's first five goals and looked to be in control late in the first half, but North Central's Danielle Fiala scored a pair of free-position goals to get the visitors back into contention. Following a timeout, Augustana got one goal back with a score by Christina Letmanski with just 1:24 left before halftime.

The hosts scored again less than a minute after play resumed, and later strung together two goals in an 88-second span to pull ahead, 8-3, with 21:20 to play. The Cardinals' Gina Fisher scored on a free-position attempt with 15:24 on the clock to spark a run of five unanswered goals in just under 10 minutes to tie the score at 8-8. Fiala and Leea LoPresti scored before Fisher tacked on another goal, and Fisher later assisted Rachael Houp on the game-tying score with 5:48 to play.

The Cardinals won the ensuing draw, but Augustana's Bridget Conniff forced a turnover which led to a goal by Emily Handrahan to put the Vikings back in front. Augustana won the following draw and got a goal from Allie Rohrenbeck with 2:59 left which wound up putting the hosts ahead for good. Fisher scored with 1:08 to play to draw the Cardinals within a single goal once again, but North Central was unable to set up an attempt for another equalizer.

Fiala's game-high four goals give her a school-record 56 for the season. Fisher totaled three goals and one assist, finishing with North Central single-season records for assists (21), ground balls (84) and caused turnovers (48). Rebecca James finished with a team-high five ground balls and tied a single-game school record with six caused turnovers. 

As a team, North Central finished the season with new school records for goals (216), assists (83), ground balls (436) caused turnovers (224).