Box Score The offensive firepower was consistent for the undefeated JCU women's lacrosse team, but an impressive defensive effort stood out on Wednesday evening.
 
The Blue Streaks (6-0) topped the host Oberlin College Yeowomen (2-1) by a final score of 16-5 from the Knowlton Athletics Complex in Oberlin, Ohio.
 
Senior Meghan Harte's four first half goals pushed the Blue & Gold toward early control, as Harte and fellow senior Gina Vilsack each finished with a game-high five goals apiece to keep the pace.
 
The defensive end, led by sophomore goalkeeper Elyssa Zablo, held Oberlin to a season-low five goals on Wednesday evening. The Blue Streaks defense also caused a season-high 15 turnovers.
 
Following Harte and Vilsack's five goals each, junior Brooke McQuinn aided the offensive end with a season-high four assists, and winning a team-best three draw controls.
 
The Blue Streaks' early run was aided by Harte's four first half scores, along with Vilsack's three opening stanza goals.  Zablo's nine first half saves helped take the intermission score to 10-3 in favor of JCU.
 
At the 9:07 mark of the second half, sophomore Colleen Grombala gave the Blue Streaks their first 10-goal lead of the match, before Sydney Garvis of Oberlin quickly answered.
 
Harte then netted her fifth goal of the match, with an assist from senior Grace Curatolo, in the 14th minute, and did not look back through the final frame of a running clock.
 
Sophomore Sarah Cilano added on her third goal of the season shortly after, before Vilsack scored her fifth goal of the match with under 22 seconds remaining in the game.
 
Zablo tied a season and career-best with 14 saves in net, playing a full match.

This is the fourth time this season that John Carroll has defeated a team from the North Coast Athletic Conference. The Blue Streaks have defeated the teams picked to finish second (Oberlin, 16-5), fifth (Wittenberg (21-13), sixth (Kenyon, 20-9) and eighth (Ohio Wesleyan, 21-5) by a combined score of 78-32.
 
Up next, the Blue Streaks will have a 10-day break before opening up Ohio Athletic Conference action for the 2018 season next Saturday afternoon. The conference-opener at Capital University is set for opening draw at 1:00 p.m. from Bernlohr Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.