(MARQUETTE, Mich., April 29)—The McKendree University women's lacrosse team tuned up for next week's Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament to be held next week with a 26-7 victory Sunday afternoon at Northern Michigan University.
 
The Bearcats established a new program record for goals scored in a match to earn its third straight victory and its sixth win in seven matches. McKendree wraps up the regular season with an overall record of 8-9 while posting a 7-5 mark in GLIAC play. The Bearcats will be the No. 4 seed in the GLIAC Tournament and will take on top-seeded Grand Valley State University in a tournament semifinal contest on Friday, May 4 at 4 p.m. ET in Allendale, Mich.
 
Senior attacker Paige Salthouse (St. Louis, MO/Ursuline Academy) led the scoring charge for McKendree with seven goals. Salthouse now has 64 goals this season, which matches a career-high she established as a sophomore back in 2016. Senior attacker Dana DiPasquale (St. Charles, MO/Barat Academy) chipped in with two goals and a team-leading six assists at Northern Michigan. Senior attacker Mia Fiore (Eureka, MO/Eureka High School) and freshman midfielder Rylee Skachenko (Oceanside, CA/Carlsbad) each netted four goals, while Fiore added a match-high 11 draw controls for the Bearcats. Junior midfielder Hannah Sugarman (Holden, MA/Wachusett Regional) scored three times against the Wildcats.
 
McKendree was clicking on offense early against Northern Michigan, scoring seven times in the first eight minutes of action to build a 7-1 lead. Salthouse scored three times during the opening burst, which included the final two scores coming off passes from DiPasquale. The Bearcats continued to add to the lead and ripped off six unanswered goals in the later stages of the half to stretch the advantage to 15-4 with just under seven minutes left in the half.
 
After taking a 17-5 lead at the break, McKendree scored the first three goals of the second half to push its lead to 20-5. The Bearcats then put together another run of six consecutive tallies to take its largest lead of the contest, 26-6, with just over seven minutes remaining.
 
The 26 goals scored on Sunday by McKendree breaks the previous program record of 23, which was reached five other times. The Bearcats had scored 23 goals in match two times within the last month – on April 8 at Leemon Field in their first meeting with Northern Michigan and again on April 20 at Davenport University.