BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Playing in their first-ever College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin postseason tournament game, the No. 2 seed Illinois Wesleyan women's lacrosse team used a six goal second half to down No. 3 seed North Central 9-6 in a CCIW semifinal game at Tucci Stadium on Wednesday, May 4.
With the win, IWU improves to 15-3 this season and moves on to Saturday's CCIW title game while the Cardinals saw their season come to an end with a 13-5 record.
After playing a 10-7 game against North Central less than two weeks ago, Illinois Wesleyan fell into a 3-1 deficit with 7:25 remaining in the first half before two late goals by Senior
Lauren Pavich and sophomore
Abby Kushina knotted the game at three right before intermission. The Cardinals and Titans would trade the first three goals of the second to see NCC regain the lead at 5-4 with 24:02 remaining in the game, but a 4-0 run over the next 11 minutes would give IWU their largest lead of the game at 8-5. North Central would make one last attempt to mount a comeback scoring their last goal with 10:42 remaining as IWU's
Sam Bidlack added a goal with 24 seconds remaining to leave no doubt of a Titan victory.
IWU outshot North Central 23-15 and held a slim 28-25 advantage in ground balls while also holding an 11-6 advantage in draw controls.
Freshman
Dani Engelbreit would lead the Titans with three goals scored and Kushina had two goals with one assist.
On the defensive end, goalie
Claire Quist made six saves in 60 minutes between the pipes, picking up her second victory of the year over the Cardinals and 14th overall.
What's Next?
The other CCIW semifinal saw No. 1 seed Augustana defeat No. 4 seed Carthage by a score of 16-7 meaning that the Titans will head to Rock Island on Saturday, May 7th for a rematch with the Vikings at 1 p.m. from Thorsen-Lucken Field. In the CCIW opener for both teams this season, Augustana beat Illinois Wesleyan 16-2 at Tucci Stadium. This will be the first meeting between the two schools at Augustana as the first two games played in the series have been contested at Tucci Stadium.
