LEBANON, Ill. – The women's lacrosse team will return to the Midwest after a three-game tilt in Colorado, where they went unblemished, as they will face a pair of non-conference foes in the Wolverine State of Michigan. 

They will begin the week by facing Northwood University in Midland on Thursday, March 26th at 11:00 AM CT, and will end their long-lasting road trip at Saginaw Valley State University, where the Bearcats will face the Cardinals at 9:00 AM CT on Saturday, March 28th. 

Both games will be streamed live and on demand on FloSports with a subscription purchase required. Live stats will also be made available to the public. Tickets for the SVSU game can be found on the Cardinals' athletic website. 

SCOUTING THE LAST OUTINGS 

McKendree is coming off a 3-0 stretch in the Centennial State of Colorado for their spring break trip, where they boosted their win streak to six games, and are running in with a 6-1 overall record. 

At the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the Bearcats started off with five straight goals coming by way of the underclassmen attackers Elora Waardenburg (Cobble Hill, British Columbia, Canada) and LaFrance, with Barnden assisting on three of those scoring possessions. The Mountain Lions were finally able to get themselves on the board with 3:43 left in the first period, but Barnden was there on the response to end the initial quarter up 6-1. LaFrance joined Waardenburg with a hat-trick within the early stages as sophomore midfielder Elle Garriock (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) notched in her fifth goal of the season with the Bearcats lead trimmed to three at the end of the first half. Both squads tabbed in two goals each in the third quarter of action, with McKendree's both by once again in LaFrance to put her at five total in the game already with the team remaining a three-point edge. UCCS began the final period in regulation with two straight scoring possessions to cut their deficit to within one. A yellow card assessed to the Mountain Lions with 9:50 left on the clock became the crucial factor down the stretch, as Garriock and Stroisch capitalized on two man-up shots that sailed in over a 23-second span to extend their lead back to a trio. Six minutes cruised by without any more points until the Mountain Lions broke the drought with 3:13 remaining to be down by two. But Barnden had put away all hopes of a comeback by the opposition, as she found the back of the net with 43 ticks left to end the match with a 13-10 victory. LaFrance had a game-high seven points, consisting of five goals and two assists on six shot attempts overall and on-goal to go with a pair of ground balls. Barnden finished with five points with two goals scored and a trio of assists credited with nailing both of her shots on the goal, plus getting a ground ball and a draw control. Waardenburg joined LaFrance with a hat-trick in the victory with three goals scored on four shots, as the freshman picked up three ground balls. Junior midfielder Lexi Macleod contributed a game-high of four assists and seven draw controls with a pair of ground balls. Hayden collected 10 saves and a season-high five ground balls in the win.  

In the neutral-site matchup versus Fort Lewis College, Macleod put up the first points on the board a minute and 16 seconds into the game with Barnden helping the midfielder out with the assist. Fort Lewis fired in a goal to respond 86 seconds subsequently after to tie the game up at one apiece before Barnden captured her first goal later in the initial quarter. After a scoreless second period by both teams, McKendree did not look back, as the team rallied in seven consecutive shots to make it eight straight for the Bearcats to lead comfortably 9-1. LaFrance contributed three goals in the spurt for a hat-trick day, as Barnden chipped in three more as well for her total to earn herself the hat-trick. Garriock was in on the lone other goal within that span. The Skyhawks were able to stop the bleeding momentarily with 1:30 left to go in the third quarter of action to cut the deficit to a large seven. Yet as the two squads headed into the final period of regulation, the Bearcats put all to rest, as Barnden capitalized on a fifth scoring possession as Macleod got on the hat-trick train with two more in the 5-0 team run to close out the game. Freshman midfielder Dom Neville (San Mateo, Calif.) snuck in the ball through the posts with one second remaining in the contest to pull out a 15-2 team victory. Barnden chipped in a season-high five goal with one assist added, as she did so on 10 shot attempts overall and nine on the goal. She also collected a career-high-tying six ground balls. LaFrance and Macleod each contributed three goals and one assist on the day, with the former picking a pair of ground balls and draw controls, with the latter having three draw controls and a caused turnover. Hayden played all 60:00 minutes in the net and finished with 14 saves on an 87.5 save percentage to go with two caused turnovers and one ground ball. 

It was a bit of a slow start to the final game of McKendree's three-game trip in the Centennial State against Colorado State University Pueblo, as the ThunderWolves scored the contest's first six goals and jumped out to a 7-1 advantage with a hair under two minutes of the first quarter. Barnden slipped in her team's second scoring possession to put a wrap on the initial period. The Bearcats did a complete 180 and held the ThunderWolves scoreless for the remainder of the match. McKendree dropped in 15 goals over the last three quarters, where Barned put up a double hat-trick within that span with two instances of a personal three-goal spurt by the senior. Sophomore attacker Sofia Mullen (Lakeside, Nova Scotia, Canada) also earned herself a hat-trick of three scores by tallying one in each of the last three periods to help propel McKendree to the 10-point 17-7 win to close out their cross-region trip. Barnden finished by tying her career-high of seven goals for a fifth time in her tenure to go along with an assist, a career-high seven ground balls, three caused turnovers, and a draw control on a perfect seven shots on the goal and nine shots overall. The Bearcats are 6-0 in games where the senior has participated. Mullen also got a hat-trick of three goals scored on four shots overall and on the goal, as she picked up a ground ball and a draw control. Macleod chipped in a pair into the net, plus an assist with six ground balls, two caused turnovers, and a quad of draw controls. Hayden manned the net the whole 60:00 minutes of action and corralled 10 saves and a trio of ground balls. 

GAME RECOGNIZES GAME 

While the team was roughly 900 miles away from home, the Great Lakes Valley Conference awarded three Bearcats with Player of the Week nods, making it four total conference selections already for the program in the early part of the 2026 season. 

Sophomore attacker Ariyah LaFrance (Akwesasne, N.Y.) obtained an Offensive Player of the Week honor two weeks back after strong performances against the University of Findlay in the Bearcats' last home event and game one of the Colorado trip against UCCS. In the two games, she totaled 13 points, consisting of eight goals and five assists on 72.7% shooting overall and 72.7% on the goal, to go with three ground balls, a draw control, and two caused turnovers. 

Last week, the GLVC gave the offensive and defensive accolades to McKendree for the first time since the 2022 season. Senior attacker Jayna Barnden (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) collected the offensive side of the award after totaling 12 goals and four assists for 16 points, along with 13 ground balls, one draw control, and three caused turnovers on 63.2% shooting overall and 84.2% on the goal in the two games combined between Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo. Barnden tied a career-high seven goals against the ThunderWolves. 

Junior goalkeeper Amber Hayden (Woburn, Mass.) received the recognition on the defensive end for the two aforementioned contests, where she collected 24 saves on a 72.7 save percentage and 4.5 goals-against average, along with four ground balls and two caused turnovers. In the match against the Thunderwolves, Hayden held the opposition scoreless for the last three quarters. 

INCHING CLOSER TO THE TOP 

With a stellar start to the season, McKendree has appeared this week on the USA Lacrosse Division II Women's Top 20 poll under the "Also Considered" section, where they are one of three teams just outside the rankings. 

HISTORY SHOWCASE 

Against Northwood, this is the second matchup-ever between the two schools, as McKendree won the first game last season in Lebanon, 19-6 ,where Jayna Barnden had seven goals and 10 points, while Lexi Macleod had five goals scored. 

Against SVSU, it will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs. The Bearcats are already 1-1 against GLIAC foes this season, as they beat Concordia University, St. Paul [18-11] and fell to Northern Michigan University [5-15]. 

KNOW THE FOES 

It has not been the ideal start to the season for the Timberwolves, who have yet to win a game all season as they sit at 0-8 overall with a 0-2 mark in the early part of G-MAC play. As this match versus the Bearcats will put a hold on their conference slate, the Timberwolves have not won a contest since April 21st of 2025. This is the program's second year in existence. 

The Cardinals have also struggled in the front half of the 2026 year, winning only one game of their nine outings, which came coincidentally against Northwood on February 24th... one month ago today. SVSU has not won a game yet in the GLIAC slate, as they will resume conference play after their game against McKendree. The Cardinals are also in the midst of their second season of varsity, after not posting a single win in all of last season. 

NCAA's TOP 25 (as of 3/24/26) 

McKENDREE 

Team: 

• Assists per game (23rd – 6.9) 
• Ground balls per game (9th – 23.0) 
• Points per game (22nd – N/A) 
• Save percentage (3rd – 57.2%) 
• Scoring defense (22nd – 8.4) 
• Scoring margin (14th – 6.4) 
• Scoring offense (16th – 14.9) 
• Shots per game (20th – 31.4) 
• Shots on goal per game (21st – 23.7) 
• Win percentage (12th – 85.7%) 

Individual: 

• Jayna Barnden –– free position goals per game (9th – 1.0), free position percentage (17th – 66.7%), goals per game (20th – 3.5), points per game (7th – 5.7), shots per game (25th – 7.3), shots on goal per game (15th – 5.8) 
• Amber Hayden –– goals-against average (9th – 8.3), save percentage (2nd – 57.8%), total saves (8th – 78), saves per game (7th – 11.1), shot percentage (1st – 100%) 

NORTHWOOD 

Team: 

N/A 

Individual: 

N/A 

SAGINAW VALLEY STATE 

Team: 

N/A 

Individual: 

• Mikaila Stone –– save percentage (18th – 48.0%), total saves (3rd – 110), saves per game (2nd – 13.8) 
• Maggie Falor –– shot percentage (1st – 100%) 

LOOKING AHEAD 

After McKendree closes out their slate in Michigan, they will return home for one more non-conference match before beginning GLVC play, as the Bearcats will take on Dominican University of California in an early 10:00 AM CT tilt against the Penguins on Tuesday, March 31st. 

The game will be streamed live and on-demand on the GLVC Sports Network with a subscription/download purchase required. Live stats will also be made available for the public. 

TUNE IN-FO 

DATE	TIME (CT)	HOME TEAM	AWAY TEAM	LIVE STATS	WATCH LIVE
3/26/26	11:00 AM	Northwood	McKendree	STATS	WATCH ($)
3/28/26	9:00 AM	Saginaw Valley State	McKendree	STATS	WATCH ($)

---

Make sure to keep up with McKendree University Women's Lacrosse on Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram. #GLVCwlax | #D2lax 

For more updates and information on Bearcat Athletics, please continue to visit McKBearcats.com and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram. 
#BearcatsUnleashed