INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The McKendree women's lacrosse team will begin postseason play here Friday morning at Key Stadium with an 11 a.m. ET game against the nationally-No. 2 ranked and top-seeded University of Indianapolis in the semifinals of the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.
The Bearcats are seeded No. 4 in this year's GLVC Tournament after posting a 4-3 regular in league play during the regular season. Along with posting a 4-3 record in GLVC play, the Bearcats are sporting an 8-8 overall record.
Friday's match-up with UIndy will be the third this season between the two schools and the second in the last five days as the two teams concluded the regular season this past Sunday in Lebanon, Ill., with the Greyhounds earning a 17-2 win over the Bearcats. UIndy also picked up a 19-3 win over the McKendree in the season opener for both teams on Feb. 18.
The Bearcats are making its seventh trip to the postseason in the last eight seasons this year (the 2020 postseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) as they are 6-5 all-time in postseason conference tournaments as they went 6-4 in the GLIAC Tournament from 2015-19, including capturing the GLIAC Tournament title in 2017.
At last year's inaugural GLVC Tournament, the Bearcats fell 16-9 to UIndy in the semifinal round that was played at Leemon Field on the McKendree campus.
McKendree comes into the postseason having played one of the toughest schedules in the Midwest Region as they have played six games against nationally ranked foes as six of their eight losses this year have come against nationally ranked foes.
Leading the way offensively for the Bearcats heading into Friday's GLVC Tournament semifinal game against UIndy are junior attackers
Kat Albrecht (Louisville, Ky./Eastern) and
Sydney Tiemann (Eureka, Mo./Eureka). Those two have each scored 63 goals on the year, which is tied for second most in the GLVC behind the 80 goals scored by UIndy's Abigail Lagos. Along with being tied for second in the GLVC in goals, the McKendree duo is 12th nationally in Division II in goals scored.
In this past Sunday's season finale against UIndy, Albrecht scored one of the Bearcats' two goals and that goal helped her set a new school career record for points with 299. The 299 points bettered the old school record 298 set by Dana DiPasquale from 2015-18.
A third Bearcat has tallied 30 or more goals on the season as graduate student midfielder
Oriana Johnson (Monticello, Minn./Monticello) has scored 39 goals.
Albrecht, Tiemann and Johnson have accounted for 165 of McKendree's 206 goals on the season, which is 80.1 percent of the team's offense.
Along with her 63 goals, Tiemann is second in the league in draw controls with 106 and is averaging 6.62 draw controls per game. The 106 draw controls are third most in a single season in school history.
Offensively, McKendree has scored 20 or more goals in six games and has tallied double figures in scoring in 10 games, including tallying a season-high 21 goals in a 25-21 loss to then 25th-ranked Davenport in the second game of the 2022 season.
Junior
Clara Andrews (St. Louis, Mo./Nerinx Hall) leads the way in goal for the Bearcats as she has played nearly 777 minutes between the pipes and has recorded 122 saves, which is third best in the GLVC. Additionally, her .441 save percentage is fourth in the GLVC.
In addition to McKendree and UIndy, the other GLVC Tournament semifinal game on Friday matches No. 2 seeded and nationally-No. 8 ranked Lindenwood (14-3, 6-1 GLVC) facing No. 3 seeded Rockhurst (10-6, 5-2 GLVC) at 2 p.m. ET. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday, May 1 at 11 a.m. ET.
