River Forest, Ill.- The Concordia University Chicago Women's Lacrosse team took on Wartburg University in a conference matchup this weekend, looking to bounce back from their 14-5 loss to Carthage. In the first half CUC went down early, but behind the surging offense they found themselves up 7-3 at halftime. Despite a near collapse, the Cougars picked up the pieces late in the regulation and at the beginning of overtime to grab the win.
Head coach Brian Patterson had this to say about his team after the overtime thriller, "We came to play today and jumped out to a nice lead, but we knew that Wartburg would make a run and they did. We were mentally tough enough to survive the onslaught and were able to get the game winner in OT."
Opening up the match Wartburg struck first, but soon after, Sydney Fuller assisted on an Anna Kellar circus shot goal where she nearly threw her stick into the goal along with the ball. Fuller and Kellar continued their killer connection with another goal moments later to make it 2-1. Seemingly unstoppable, they were responsible for their third goal in ten minutes after another score helping the Cougars to a 3-1 lead. Kellar continued her dominance with three more goals, extending her count to six on the day. Margaret Doane joined in on the action off of another Fuller pass down the middle of the field to make it 7-3. Fuller pushed her assist total to five on the day, picking apart the Wartburg defense and getting anywhere she wanted on the field to take a 7-3 lead into halftime.
Fuller continued to fill the stat sheet in the opening stages of the second half. Two quick goals by a cutting Doane stretched the CUC lead to 9-3. Concordia-Chicago struggled to find any offensive opportunities for an extended period of time and the Knights took advantage by scoring three straight goals and in turn forced a Cougar timeout. Following the timeout, Wartburg kept their foot on the gas pedal with three more goals to tie the game up at 9-9. Sandra Acevedo came as a blessing for the Concordia attack with an unassisted goal to end the scoring drought and give the Cougars back the lead. Fuller went back to her ways of creating and found Doane for her eighth assist, and Doane's fourth goal. Tensions rose with the final minute left to play. CUC held a 11-10 lead while the Knights had possession. With 36.9 seconds left Wartburg netted a goal to even the score at 11-11. In the closing moments a Knights miss resulted in Doane running from coast to coast and passing to an open Kellar. Kellar shot as time ran out, but hit the post in two different places and trickled away causing overtime.
One minute into overtime Kellar netted her seventh goal off of a ricocheted shot, sending all CUC fans home happy.
Concordia-Chicago (4-11, 3-6 MWLC) will be back in action for Senior Day on April 22 nd at 12:00 p.m. against Loras College. All seniors will be recognized before the game.
