DURANGO, Colo. – The McKendree University women's lacrosse team began its Spring Break trip to Colorado here Sunday afternoon as they rallied for five goals in the fourth quarter in its 11-8 come-from-behind win over Fort Lewis College at Ray Dennison Stadium on the FLC campus.
 
With the victory, McKendree extends its win streak to two straight games and moves evens its record at 3-3 on the season, while Fort Lewis falls to 1-2 on the year.
 
Sunday's game was a physical game between the two schools as a total of 32 penalties were called in the game and 13 cards were handed out with FLC receiving nine of those cards and McKendree being accessed four cards. The fourth quarter featured 12 of those penalties and four yellow cards by the Skyhawks.
 
The game also featured 18 free position shots between the two schools as McKendree was 4-for-11 on free position shots, while FLC was 1-for-7 on their free position shots.
 
Trailing 7-6 after three quarters, the Bearcats would open the fourth quarter with a free position goal with 12:07 left in the game from graduate student Oriana Johnson (Monticello, Minn./Monticello) to tie the game.
 
About 90 seconds later, Johnson added a second free position goal with 10:37 left in the game to give the Bearcats an 8-7 lead.
 
FLC, though, retied the game at 8-all following a free position goal by Caprietta Abbadessa with 5:31 remaining in the game.
 
Following Abbadessa third goal of the game, the Bearcats would close the game by scoring three straight goals that began with an unassisted goal by junior attacker Kat Albrecht (Louisville, Ky./Eastern) with 4:46 to give the Bearcats a 9-8 lead.
 
Freshman attacker Sophia Scheller (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette) gave the Bearcats a 10-8 lead on her goal assisted by Albrecht with 3:23 left in the game and freshman attacker Mya Cobb (Newbergh, Ind./Castle) scored her second goal of the season as she tallied an unassisted man-up goal with 1:05 left in the game to cap the scoring.
 
McKendree would score three of the first five goals in the first quarter, including two goals from Albrecht to take a 3-2 lead.
 
The Skyhawks, though, would score three of the five goals in the second quarter to square the game at 5-5 at the half. In the second quarter, Ellie Martinez scored the first goal of the quarter to tie things up, before Johnson and Albrecht scored back-to-back goals for the Bearcats to take a 5-3 lead. Abbadessa and Haley Dostie would score the final goals of the quarter for FLC to tie things up at the half.
 
Albrecht scored the first goal of the third quarter to give McKendree a 6-5 lead just a little over three minutes into the quarter, but FLC would score the final two goals of the quarter to hold its 7-6 lead after three quarters.
 
Albrecht (5) and Johnson (4) combined for nine of McKendree's 11 goals, while Abbadessa scored three goals and Martinez and Dostie each had two goals for FLC.
 
McKendree held a 31-22 edge in shots as Albrecht took 16 of those shots, while FLC held a 10-7 edge in ground balls.
 
The Bearcats won the draw control battle, 12-11, but they had 23 turnovers in the game. FLC had 20 turnovers in the loss.

Sophomore Gretchen Kuhn (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) earned the win (1-0) in the cage for McKendree as she played 22 minutes in goal in relief of junior Clara Andrews (St. Louis, Mo./Nerinx Hall) and made two saves and allowed one goal. Andrews played the first 37-plus minutes and allowed seven goals and made six saves. 
 
McKendree will continue its four-game trip to Colorado with a 3:30 p.m. Mountain game on Tuesday, March 15 in Denver against 11th-ranked Regis College.