Women's lacrosse drops nailbiter to IWU

ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University women's lacrosse team suffered its first home loss of the season in a tightly contested 10-9 match with Illinois Wesleyan. The two teams went back and forth late in the second half before the Titans pulled ahead for the win.

IWU scored the first two goals of the match but freshman Annicka Ekvall and senior Kelsey Mackin drove in two free position shots to tie the match a 2-2 just over five minutes in. Maggie Krause regained the lead for IWU with her first of three goals on the night.

The early scoring continued as Chapman found itself down 4-2 just seven and a half minutes in to the contest. Mackin scored again for the Panthers but the Titans responded to make it 5-3. Both defenses settled in as over 10 minutes passed without a goal. Junior Becka Wachtel broke the silence and scored with just 2:27 to go in the half.

IWU and Chapman continued to trade goals early in the second half before the Panthers went on a 3-0 lead to take its only lead of the match. Mackin hit another free position shot and was followed just over one minute later by freshman Danelle Lucero's game-tying free position goal.

Lucero struck again with 11:30 to go to give Chapman an 8-7. The lead was short lived as Abby Kushina  scored with just over 10 minutes left to tie up the match. Krause followed with two goals of her own to put IWU back out in front 10-8 with 3:37 left.

Mackin scored her fourth goal just 20 seconds later to make it a one-goal match but Chapman couldn't covert on its final possessions to fall for the first time on Wilson Field.

Mackin had five groundballs, three caused turnovers and a draw control to add to her four goals. Sophomore Shelby Thompson picked up seven groundballs and caused two turnovers on defense.

Chapman heads to Colorado next week for three matches, beginning with a Colorado College on Mar. 21 at 11 a.m.

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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