ST. PAUL, Minn. – It was a picture-perfect Saturday for the University of Northwestern Women's Lacrosse team to celebrate 10 seniors who will be graduating this spring.
Daisy Koffler (Pine City, Minn./Pine City),
Emma Snyder (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park),
Reegan Duininck (Prinsburg, Minn./Central Minnesota Christian),
Abby Scheel (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area),
Cara Smith (Watertown, Wis./Watertown),
Maren Reu (Sioux Falls, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian),
Ainsley Thompson (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview),
Claire Carlson (Chaska, Minn./Southwest Christian),
Annika Dykstra (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) and
Emma Ruegemer (Cold Spring, Minn./Eden Valley-Watkins) have made a profound impact on the program and the university in their respective careers. Four of those seniors ended up scoring in the game, but Cornell College was ultimately able to pull away from Northwestern down the stretch to earn a 16-9 win an improve to 12-2 on the season. UNW fell to 5-7 with the loss.
Cornell held a 2-0 lead until the 3:09 mark in the first quarter when
Lily Crosby (Cavalier, N.D./Cavalier Public School) got Northwestern on the board. The Rams would still hold a 2-1 edge as the first quarter ended, but extended that lead to 5-1 after scoring the first three goals of the second. Senior
Maddie Hauer (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West) cut the deficit to 5-2 with 4:44 left in the half off an assist from senior
Ainsley Thompson (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) that ignited the crowd, but Cornell answered back less than a minute later to push the lead back to four. Northwestern closed the half strong though, as senior
Emma Ruegemer (Cold Spring, Minn./Eden Valley-Watkins) rattled the cage with 3:07 left and senior
Emma Snyder (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) found Thompson for a goal with 2:23 remaining. By halftime, UNW had cut Cornell's lead to 6-4.
The Eagles would carry that momentum into the second half as Thompson scored her second in a row just 35 seconds in, assisted by Hauer, and made it a 3-0 UNW run. The Rams would answer back with a pair of goals to make their lead 8-5, but Northwestern would not go away quietly. Senior
Abby Scheel (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) scored off an assist from senior
Cara Smith (Watertown, Wis./Watertown) with 7:55 left in the third, then Scheel assisted on a Hauer goal just 46 seconds later to trim the deficit to just one at 8-7. Cornell tacked on two more to give itself a three-goal cushion before Snyder found the back of the net at the 2:37 mark, making it 10-8. The high-scoring third period continued as the Rams added two more goals in the quarter's closing minutes to take a 12-8 lead into the fourth.
Cornell's lead stretched to five on a goal just over a minute into the final period and then the teams went into a scoring drought for several minutes.
Lauren Paar (Centerville, Minn./Centennial) ended the dry spell with 6:31 remaining, taking a Scheel dime and sending it home to make things interesting at 13-9. Unfortunately, that would be the final goal of the day for UNW. Cornell would score three times in the final 3:26 of play to cap off a 16-9 win at Reynolds Field.
Northwestern's offensive attack was a balanced one led by Thompson and Hauer scoring two goals and dishing one assist each. Thompson also scooped up two ground balls. Scheel had a nice day on both ends as well, scoring once, assisting three times and snagging three ground balls. Snyder was active on both ends herself, finishing with one goal, one assist, three ground balls and two draw controls. Ruegemer tallied one goal and a team-high five draw controls, while Crosby and Paar each found the back of the cage once as well. Smith led the team in ground balls (7) and caused turnovers (4), in addition to her one assist and two draw controls. Senior
Reegan Duininck (Prinsburg, Minn./Central Minnesota Christian) finished with five ground balls while senior
Daisy Koffler (Pine City, Minn./Pine City) made eight saves in cage.
Northwestern will be back at Reynolds Field Wednesday night for a non-conference tilt with fellow MLC member Saint Benedict as the Eagles look to avenge an 18-7 loss suffered earlier this month. The draw is scheduled for 7:00 PM in St. Paul.
