Looking to rebound after a loss in their season opener, the Concordia University Chicago women's lacrosse team (1-1, 0-0) traveled 20 minutes west to face the Blue Jays of Elmhurst University (0-4, 0-0). The Cougars faced little opposition, and rolled to a 15-2 victory. Head coach Fran Meyer picked up the first win in her collegiate head coaching career, while eight Cougars found the back of the net.
Inside the Box Score
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Junior Nina Naes (St. Louis, Mo.) led the game in points with her three-goal, two-assist effort.
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Freshman Sabra Brouillet (Lino Lakes, Minn.) scored her first collegiate goal tonight. She would go on to tack on two more, finishing her first college hat trick.
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Senior Emily Cyrwus (Chicago, Ill.) also scored three goals in the game.
It did not take long for CUC to get on the board, as junior Madison Perkins (Louisville, Ky.) scored just 14 seconds into the game. About a minute later, Perkins added another goal with her breakaway effort.
The Cougars struggled to produce goals for nearly nine minutes thanks to some strong play from Elmhurst goalie Corinna Salmon. Naes finally broke the drought at the 4:48 mark utilizing a free lane to the goal.
Brouillet scored her first collegiate goal at the 3:38 mark of the first quarter to increase the Concordia lead to four. A little over two minutes later, she added another one before the first quarter came to an end with CUC up 5-0.
Some nice work by the Cyrwus sisters helped grow the Cougar lead to start the second. Graduate student Elizabeth Cyrwus (Chicago, Ill.) scored her 2nd goal in as many games, and less than 30 seconds later, her sister Emily potted her first of the game.
Rylee Orenstein (Walnut Creek, Calif.) scored the Cougar's 8th goal of the night at the 11 minute mark of the second quarter; it was her fifth goal of the season. Emily Cyrwus added another a few minutes later, before capping off her hat trick with another one a little over a minute to go in the half. Concordia would go into the halftime break up 10-0.
Scoring was a little harder to come by in the second half. It took until the 8:51 point for sophomore Jessica Parker (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) to score the first goal of the half. Exactly 1:40 later, Brouillet scored her third goal in the game to score the first hat trick of her young career. Naes would add another goal before the third quarter came to an end, putting the score at 13-0 Cougars heading into the last 15 minutes of play.
Naes scored once again to start the fourth, joining Emily Cyrwus and Brouillet in the hat trick party. Elmhurst was able to get on the scoreboard after Gracie Eastman put two goals past CUC goalie Ryan McGee (Chicago, Ill.) off of a pair of free position shots. Graduate student and recent transfer Kelli Pietrowski (Wheeling, Ill.) scored her first Cougar goal with just over a minute to go in the game.
McGee stopped four of six shots faced on route to her first win of the season. The Cougars will be back in action this weekend when they take on Kalamazoo College on Saturday at 2 p.m., before facing DePauw University Sunday, also at 2 p.m. Coverage for both games can be found at cucougars.com.
