LEBANON, Ill. – McKendree University women's lacrosse team scored 15 first half goals en route to posting a resounding 22-3 victory here Tuesday afternoon over Ashland University at Leemon Field.
 
The game was played with a running clock following a free position goal by graduate student midfielder Oriana Johnson (Monticello, Minn./Monticello) with 9:38 left in the second period. Johnson's goal gave the Bearcats an 11-1 lead.
 
McKendree led 15-1 at the half as they outshot the Eagles, 23-9 in the first half and finished the game with a 40-14 edge in shots. The 40 shots were the second most this season by the Bearcats, while the 22 goals were a season high.
 
The Bearcats defense was also strong in Tuesday's game as the Bearcats forced Ashland into 18 turnovers, including 13 turnovers in the first half.
 
Junior attacker Kat Albrecht (Louisville, Ky./Eastern) scored the first three goals of the game within a span of five-plus minutes and about six minutes into the opening period, junior midfielder Sydney Tiemann (Eureka, Mo./Eureka) scored on a free position goal to give McKendree a 4-0 lead.
 
Albrecht, Johnson and Tiemann combined to score 17 goals in the game as Albrecht scored a season high eight goals, while Johnson scored five goals and Tiemann added four goals and two assists.
 
Following Tieman's free position goal, Cassady Becker scored an unassisted goal for Ashland to cut McKendree's lead to 4-1. The Bearcats would cap the first period with goals from sophomore attacker Riley Bishop (Grayslake, Ill./Warren Township), freshman midfielder Shauna Curran (Bolton, Mass./Nashoba Regional) and Johnson to hold a 7-1 lead.
 
The Bearcats would then score eight straight goals in the second period with all the goals coming from Albrecht (3), Tiemann (3) and Johnson (2) to give the Bearcats a 15-1 lead.
 
Albrecht opened the scoring in the third period on a free position goal and then freshman midfielder Jenna Sugarman (Holden, Mass./Wachusett Regional) added a goal about 84 seconds later to give the Bearcats a 17-1 lead.
 
Becker would score Ashland's second goal with 7:35 left in the third period, before Johnson added her fourth goal of the game with 5:06 left to give McKendree an 18-2 advantage.
 
The Bearcats would score four of the five goals in the fourth period, including freshman attacker Sophia Scheller (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette) scoring her first career goal with 1:03 left in the game.
 
Albrecht and Johnson combined for 21 shots in the game, while Tiemann and Scheller took seven and five shots respectively.
 
Junior Clara Andrews (St. Louis, Mo./Nerinx Hall) played the opening 30 minutes in goal and allowed just one goal and recording five saves. Sophomore goalkeeper Gretchen Kuhn (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) played the second half between the pipes and allowed two goals and made five saves.
 
Ashland won the draw control battle, 14-13 as Natalie Sontag had seven of those draw controls, while Tiemann picked up six draw controls in the win.
 
McKendree was 12-for-15 on clears and 7-for-8 on free position shots.
 
The Bearcats will now hit the road for five games over a span of six days from March 13-18 in the state of Colorado beginning with a game on Sunday, March 13 at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., beginning at 1 p.m. MT.