Contact: Matthew Eaker, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, mreaker@noctrl.edu 

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Apr. 16, 2022) - After a promising early lead, the North Central College women's lacrosse team fell to the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans 17-7 this afternoon inside Tucci Stadium in their third game of College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) play. 

The Cardinals (3-10, 1-2 CCIW) jumped out to an early lead as Reese McMullen tallied her 12th goal of the year to put the Cardinals up by one. Shortly after McMullen's goal, Abbey Triebe put the Cardinals up two as she scored off an assist from McMullen. However, the Cardinal lead would not last long as the Titans went on a seven goal run to end the first quarter putting the Cardinals down 7-2. Tanya Czosek would end the Titans stretch as she scored the only goal in the second quarter putting the Cardinals down 7-3 heading into the half. 

The Titans got the upper hand in the second half as they tallied another goal just two minutes into the quarter extending their lead to five. Ellie Yonak would start a two goal stretch for the Cardinals she scored just one minute after Titans before Abby MacKenzie would cut the lead to three as she scored off an assist from Raygn Jordan. After another Titan's goal and penalty, Berit Vandenbroucke would score off another assist from Jordan to cut the lead to three with four minutes to play in the third quarter. However, the Titans would go on another five goal run to extend their lead to 14-6 with ten minutes left in the quarter. With nine minutes remaining in the contest, Vandenbroucke would give the Cardinals their seventh goal, cutting the lead to seven but the Titans would score three more unanswered goals to defeat the Cardinals 17-7. 

Vandenbroucke led the team with two goals while Yonak, Czosek, McMullen, Triebe, and Mackenzie each had one goal. Jordan had two assists in the contest while McMullen had one. Ellie Gosselin and Tori Leonard each had three caused turnovers and four ground balls while Abigail Widd had 19 saves in net as she fell to 3-10 on the season. 

The Cardinals are back in action on Wednesday, Apr. 20 as they take a trip  to Waukesha, Wis. to take on the Pioneers of Carroll University. The action is set to start at 7 pm inside Schneider Stadium. 

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