Kocik records hat trick, Women's Lacrosse drops first game of the season to Ohio Wesleyan, 19-8

By Brandt Marshall

ADA — The Ohio Northern Women's lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday afternoon at Dial-Roberson stadium, falling 19-8 to Ohio Wesleyan. The loss drops ONU to 4-1 overall and OWU improves to 4-0. 

The Polar Bears were led by freshman Rylie Kocik (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) who recorded her fifth career hat trick in as many games. Sophomore Grace Wilson (Midland, Mich./Dow) dished out a trio of assists, two to Kocik and another to sophomore Keaghan Burden (Brunswick), Burden added an assist to Kocik as Northern assisted 6 of their 8 goals.

Ohio Wesleyan opened the scoring at the 12:50 mark in the first quarter, Northern responded just two minutes later with a man-down goal from Kocik to tie the score at 1.

The Battling Bishops scored the next four goals but ONU was able to respond with a goal from senior Meredith Miller (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) and a man-up goal from junior Noel Orioli (Westerville/North) to close the deficit to 5-3. 

OWU led 14-4 at halftime and extended their lead to 18-4 after three quarters. 

The Polar Bears were able to find the back of the net 4 times in the fourth quarter that saw Wilson dish out all three of her assists and senior Amanda Wells (Mason) scored her sixth goal of the season.

Northern returns to action on Tuesday at 2 p.m. when they will take on Framingham State (Mass.) in Panama City Beach, Fla.