(LEBANON, Ill., March 23)—The McKendree University women's lacrosse team kicked off the home portion of its 2018 schedule Friday night with a 22-10 victory over Davenport University on a rainy night at Leemon Field.
Junior attacker
Emily Nelson (Deephaven, MN/Holy Family Catholic) netted a game-high five goals and added four assists for a nine-point effort against the visiting Panthers. McKendree won for the first time since its season opener to improve to 2-4 on the year. The Bearcats are now 1-1 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. McKendree will host Lindenwood University, ranked No. 3 in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division II poll, on Sunday at noon.
Senior attackers
Dana DiPasquale (St. Charles, MO/Barat Academy) and
Paige Salthouse (St. Louis, MO/Ursuline Academy) also added four goals each on Friday for McKendree, as did junior midfielder
Hannah Sugarman (Holden, MA/Wachusett Regional). Salthouse chipped in with a pair of assists as well.
Salthouse opened the scoring for McKendree in the first minute of play before sophomore attacker
Kayla Smith (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon Township) made it 2-0 just 70 seconds into the contest. Following a Davenport goal, the Bearcats reeled off six unanswered goals to build an 8-1 advantage. Sugarman had the final two tallies during the six-goal burst for McKendree. Sugarman later added two more goals in the first half, and DiPasquale netted the final two tallies of the first half for the Bearcats to help stretch the lead to 13-4 at the intermission.
Davenport (2-3, 0-1 GLIAC) scored three of the first four goals of the second half to pull within 15-8 with just under 22 minutes to play. McKendree answered with four straight scores, including a pair from DiPasquale, to stretch the Bearcats' margin back to 19-8. Freshman
Rylee Skachenko (Oceanside, CA/Carlsbad) scored twice in the final 8:21 for McKendree, including the team's final goal with just under three minutes on the clock, to give the Bearcats their largest lead at 22-9.
Sophomore
Collin Patton (Wildwood, MO/Eureka) made seven saves in goal for McKendree.
