LEBANON, Ill. – The women's lacrosse team will return home to Lebanon, Illinois for a final time this season, pending on who hosts the GLVC Championship this May, as they will honor two of their senior players prior to Sunday's match at the Leemon Field against Quincy University. 

McKendree will begin the week by facing Missouri Western State University on Friday, April 17th at 1:00 PM CT. Then, the Bearcats will host the in-state Hawks of Quincy at 12:00 PM CT on Sunday, April 19th, with senior recognitions to be announced at approximately 11:45 AM. 

Both games 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 to the public. 

SCOUTING THE LAST OUTINGS 

The women's lacrosse team was on the road this past weekend as they pulled of their first conference win since the 2024 season against Lewis University, but fell to one of the most dominant teams in the nation at the No.3 University of Indianapolis, as the team currently sits at 9-4 overall and 1-2 in GLVC play. 

At Lewis, McKendree got themselves on the board first with senior attacker Jayna Barnden (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) driving around traffic to find the upper corner within the posts. After a quick response by the Lewis offense, Barnden once again found an open spot close to the net and made do on the feed by the junior midfielder Mackenzie Stroisch (Arnold, Mo.). Yet, the Flyers tied up the game at two apiece with a little over a minute left to go in the first quarter. The second period of play slowed down a tad, with Barnden scoring the Bearcats' only goal in the quarter for the early hat-trick. The Flyers tacked on two more in the frame to hold a 4-3 edge heading into halftime Lewis seemed to find their groove, as they opened up the second half with their fifth goal of the game four and a half minutes in to take a two-point lead. However, the tides would significantly shift in favor of McKendree, while the visiting Bearcats held the home Flyers scoreless the rest of the way. Freshman attacker Elora Waardenburg (Cobble Hill, British Columbia, Canada) scored two of the team's four goals to close out the third period of play up by a pair. To seal the deal in the final quarter of regulation, Stroisch earned her second scoring possession of the match, while sophomore attacker Ariyah LaFrance (Akwesasne, N.Y.) caught the high pass to get her first of the contest. Junior midfielder Lexi Macleod (Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada) put the game away for good with a curling drive to the goalie crease and rifled it in to eventually win the game 10-5. Barnden led with a hat-trick of three goals on 10 shot attempts overall and nine on the goal to go with a ground ball, a caused turnover, and a draw control. Stroisch and Waardenburg each came away with two recorded goals, with the former also adding an assist, three ground balls, three caused turnovers, and three draw controls. Junior goalkeeper Amber Hayden (Woburn, Mass.) tallied 12 saves, four ground balls and a caused turnover in all 60:00 minutes of action.  

At Indianapolis, the Greyhounds held the Bearcats without a score throughout the first quarter of action, as they dropped in a trio in the process. After the Greyhounds started the second period with a fourth goal, Waardenburg made the cut into the center and gave McKendree their first goal of the game, as Stroisch made a half-turn fake on the defense and plowed her way towards the net for a second consecutive team goal. The Greyhounds, who would be up by a pair after the McKendree sequence, would go on to score 10 unanswered from 7:09 in the second quarter to 6:06 in the third to extend their lead to eight. Stroisch would put a stop to the UIndy flurry a minute and a half subsequently after, while Macleod curved her way in to get a fourth Bearcat score to drop. With the lead 16-4 in favor of UIndy, and under 12 minutes to go in the final period, Waardenburg made use of a man-up opportunity caused by the defense to set up her second goal on the match. In a clear attempt transition, Waardenburg found sophomore attacker Sofia Mullen (Lakeside, Nova Scotia, Canada), who put one into the net, but could not come close to the Greyhounds, who would pick up the 16-6 win. Waardenburg and Stroisch led the team with two goals each, as the former tallied an assist and a draw control, while the latter also picked up one draw control. Macleod and Mullen each contributed a goal in the contest, with two ground balls and four draw controls combined between the two. Hayden served the whole game in the net, collecting 14 saves and a ground ball. 

I'M STILL STANDING 

This week, McKendree has remained on the outskirts of the USA Lacrosse Division II Women's Top 20 poll under the "Also Considered" section, where they are one of five teams just outside the rankings, making it the fourth consecutive week. 

SENIOR STATS 

The Bearcat program will honor their two seniors on this year's squad in both attacker Jayna Barnden and defender Marin Paulenko, who both hail from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 

Barnden built quite a reputation while at McKendree, while also competing as a key member of the women's hockey program all four years. On the turf, she picked up several honors, including a GLVC First Team All-Conference award in 2025, a Second Team All-Conference in 2024, and has so far received four GLVC Offensive Player of the Week selections. Barnden, in her career, has thus far accumulated 186 goals and 43 assists for 229 points, along with 81 ground balls, 57 caused turnovers, and 94 draw controls, while registering 10 game-winning goals. 

Paulenko was a new face to the Bearcat program this season after spending two years at Newberry College, and most recently playing last season at Gannon University, where she picked up a D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award and a PSAC Scholar-Athlete nod. As her career is coming to a close, she has recorded so far one assist, 24 ground balls, 17 caused turnovers, and three draw controls. 

HISTORY SHOWCASE 

Against MoWest, this will be the seventh-ever meeting between the two schools. The Griffons are leading the series at 4-2 to which they captured all their wins in the last four outings dating back to 2023, including an overtime-winner in Lebanon in 2024. McKendree won the first two in the matchup in 2021 and 2022, winning both by an average of seven points. 

Against Quincy, it will be the sixth matchup between these two in-state institutions, as the Bearcats hold the 4-1 lead thus far. Quincy clinched their first win in the series last season in Quincy after McKendree came close in mounting a comeback, to where they fell 12-13. In the first four victories in the matchup history, the Bearcats scored 11+ in all while holding the Hawks to 10 or under. 

KNOW THE FOES 

The Griffons are still battling hard after clinching the last remaining spot in the GLVC Championships last spring. They currently sit at 6-5 overall with a positive 2-1 mark in conference play, where they lost their most recent outing to then-No.25 Rockhurst University after picking up wins against Quincy and William Jewell College. They rounded out their non-conference slate with a 4-4 record. 

The Hawks have not had an ideal season as they would expect, as they are sitting with an overall 4-9 record and in GLVC action are 1-2. Their only win in conference play was a 14-7 decision at home against William Jewell but have previously lost to Rockhurst and MoWest. Quincy went 3-7 in the non-conference portion of their schedule and is tied with McKendree in the GLVC standings (1-2). The Hawks will take on No.10 Maryville University on Friday in St. Louis before playing at McKendree. 

NCAA's TOP 25 (as of 4/14/26) 

McKENDREE 

Team: 

• Assists per game (22nd – 7.1) 
• Ground balls per game (11th – 22.2) 
• Points per game (22nd – 21.5) 
• Save percentage (3rd – 55.2%) 
• Scoring defense (23rd – 9.0) 
• Scoring margin (20th – +5.4) 
• Scoring offense (22nd – 14.4) 
• Shots per game (25th – 30.5) 
• Shots on goal per game (19th – 24.1) 
• Win percentage (25th – 69.2%) 

Individual: 

• Jayna Barnden –– free position goals per game (18th – 0.8), free position percentage (25th – 60.0%), goals per game (11th – 3.9), total points (25th – 64), points per game (7th – 5.8), shots per game (12th – 7.9), shots on goal per game (4th – 6.7) 
• Amber Hayden –– save percentage (2nd – 54.1%), total saves (12th – 131), saves per game (4th – 11.9), shot percentage (1st – 100%) 
• Rylee Fox –– shot percentage (1st – 100%) 

MISSOURI WESTERN STATE 

Team: 

• Draw control percentage (22nd – 56.5%) 

• Save percentage (16th – 47.7%) 

Individual: 

• Ava Garaway –– goals-against average (20th – 9.6), save percentage (6th – 50.6%) 

QUINCY 

Team: 

N/A 

Individual 

• Amelia Ham –– assists per game (20th – 2.6), points per game (14th – 2.6) 
• Mikenna Ham –– caused turnovers per game (9th – 2.9) 
• Alaina Wilkinson –– total points (25th – 64), points per game (21st – 4.9), shots per game (3rd – 9.2), shots on goal per game (7th – 6.5) 

LOOKING AHEAD 

After the two-game home stand, McKendree will hit the road once againt to close out the regular season slate at No.24 Rockhurst on Friday, April 24th at 4:00 PM CT and then at William Jewell on Sunday, April 26th with an 11:00 AM start time. 

Both games 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 to the public. Tickets for the Rockhurst game can be purchased over at rockhursthawks.com. 

TUNE IN-FO 

DATE	TIME (CT)	HOME TEAM	AWAY TEAM	LIVE STATS	WATCH LIVE
4/17/26	1:00 PM	McKendree	Missouri Western State	STATS	WATCH ($)
4/19/26	12:00 PM	McKendree	Quincy	STATS	WATCH ($)

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