Women's Lacrosse opens OAC slate with tight 13-12 loss to John Carroll

ADA — The Ohio Northern women's lacrosse team opened the Ohio Athletic Conference portion of its schedule with a tight 13-12 loss to John Carroll on a cold Saturday afternoon.

The Basics

• Records: Ohio Northern (5-4 overall, 0-1 OAC), John Carroll (5-3 overall, 1-0 OAC)
• Venue: Dial-Roberson Stadium - Ada, Ohio.

The Game

• Sophomore Lydia Lehman (West Chester/Lakota West) scored with 14 seconds left to get the Polar Bears within 13-12.
• ONU won the ensuing draw control and quickly moved into scoring position.
• Sophomore Emma Hoersten (Hilliard/Davidson), who had already scored twice in the game, was fouled with two seconds left just outside of the free position area.
• She got a shot off from distance with one second left, but it was saved by JCU goalie Olivia Munding to allow the Blue Streaks to hang on for the victory.
• Junior Keaghan Burden (Brunswick) had five points on two goals and three assists to lead Ohio Northern.
• Sophomore Rylie Kocik (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) had two goals and two assists for four points and fifth-year senior Elizabeth Graham (Dayton/Carroll) had a three-goal hat trick for ONU.
• John Carroll was led by Kathleen Cagney and Kendall Gessner with four goals each.
• The game was tight throughout, as it was 4-3 after the first period, 6-6 at halftime and 10-8 JCU after three quarters.
• The Blue Streaks pushed the lead to 12-9, but Lehman scored with 7:20 left in the game to make it 12-10.
• Gessner scored just 54 seconds later to extend the lead to 13-10, but Graham answered with a goal off an assist from Burden with 4:25 to go to get ONU within 13-11.
• Senior Chloe Millican (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) had 13 saves on 26 shots on goal for a .500 save percentage.
• John Carroll out-shot Ohio Northern 42-25.

Notables

• Burden is now first all-time in ONU history with 128 career points. She is also ONU's all-time career leader with 76 assists and is eighth with 52 career goals.
• Graham now leads the team with 26 goals and Kocik leads the team with 30 points on 19 goals and 11 assists.
• Burden has a team-best 18 assists.
• Ohio Northern has now scored 10 or more goals in eight of its nine games this season.
• This game is the final of an 8-game road trip to open the season for the Polar Bears.
• The game was delayed 15 minutes as the field had to be plowed to remove more than an inch of snow that had fallen overnight.
• Head coach Margo Vandeveld is in her first season at Ohio Northern and has a 5-4 record, a winning percentage of .556.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears will return to action on Tuesday with a 7 pm non-conference contest with Albion (Mich.)