NAPERVILLE, ILL. – The University of Northwestern women's lacrosse team was defeated by North Central College (9-1) Saturday afternoon in Illinois by a final score of 23-5. With the loss, the Eagles drop to 2-7 on the season.

UNW started the scoring in the first frame with a goal by Junior Hannah Shands (Hugo, Minn./Mahtomedi) before NC took control, scoring 11 goals as Northwestern tacked on two more to take an 11-3 advantage into the halftime break. In the second period, UNW once again scored first, but the home Cardinals fired away to soar to a 23-5 win over the visiting Eagles.

Senior Jodi Bertrand (Little Falls, Minn./Little Falls) and Sophomore Talia Sherry (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) led Northwestern's offense, scoring two goals apiece. Sherry also added six ground balls and two draw controls to her stat line, while Shands rounded out the scoring with one goal and collected four grounders and five draw controls on the mid-day match. 

The Eagles ended the afternoon contest scoring five goals off 12 shots, picked up 20 ground balls, and won nine draw controls.

The purple and gold will play next when they take on Southwestern University at Reynolds Field on Saturday, April 7, at 12 p.m. For more information, fans can visit www.unweagles.com and follow @unwwlax on Twitter.