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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
WLAX Before OACs
The Blue Streaks end the year at 17-2.
9
John Carroll JCUW 17-2
17
Winner Chicago UC 11-1
John Carroll JCUW
17-2
9
Final
17
Chicago UC
11-1
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
John Carroll JCUW 7 2 9
Chicago UC 10 7 17

Game Recap: Women's Lacrosse | | Luke Potosky, Staff Writer

Historic Campaign for Women's Lacrosse Ends in Sweet Sixteen Loss

LEXINGTON, Va. -- The 2021 season has been a season of firsts for John Carroll University Women's Lacrosse. It has been the first season played since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the first season with more than 15 wins, the first season with an Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season & Tournament Championships, and the first season with an NCAA Tournament appearance and win. However, all good things must come to an end.

On May 15, John Carroll was defeated by the University of Chicago, 17-9, at Wilson Field in Lexington, Virginia at Washington and Lee University. The loss ends the Blue Streak 2021 campaign in the Regional Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament as they finish a school-best 17-2 on the year.

Both teams began the contest with sublime defense, but UChicago opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game. They weren't done yet, however, as a couple of minutes later, a free-position shot put the Maroons up 2-0. Shortly after that, the Maroons scored a trio of close-range shots to take a commanding five-score lead. 

Just before the midway point of the first period, though, Colleen Grombala split three defenders and shot over a fourth to convert her 99th goal of the season and make it a 5-1 contest. Nevertheless, the Maroons responded with a strike less than a minute later to bump the score to a 6-1 advantage for the maroon and white.

However, coming out of a timeout, the Blue Streaks responded strongly to the challenge posed by the 6-1 Chicago lead. First, Grombala split a pair of defenders and found the back of the net for her 100th goal of the 2021 season. After that, Alex Heishman spun around her defender, drove inside from left to right, and scored from close-range to trim the Blue Streak deficit to 6-3.

The JCU rally was temporarily halted by another close-range Chicago score, but the Blue Streaks had more in store. After drawing a foul and a yellow card, Grombala converted a free-position shot for a hat trick to make it a 7-4 contest. 

A little bit later, on a fast break, Olivia Gerlach drove inside to her right and passed off to Olivia Hanulak, who cut left and converted a goal to make it 7-5. Just seconds after that, Grombala found Gerlach cutting from left to right, and she found the back of the net, trimming the John Carroll deficit to one. 

Then a couple of minutes later, Mary Doherty picked up a loose ball, crossed midfield, and found Colleen Grombala who sprinted several yards and found the back of the net to tie the game up 7-7. The goal marked the end of a 6-1 run by the Blue and Gold.

The superb run stalled about a minute later as the Maroons found the back of the net. Two more UChicago scores in the last 90 seconds of the first half made it a 10-7 halftime lead for the Maroons.

To open the second half, Grombala shot over the goalie's head and converted her fifth goal of the contest off the free position. After several minutes of strong defense by both sides though, the Maroons responded with two goals of their own to make it 12-8.

A handful of moments later, though, Maddy Eifert scored her fourth goal of the season off a free-position shot to cut the JCU deficit to three. Unfortunately, the Blue Streak offense was shut down for the rest of the contest. UChicago responded twice to get the Maroons a commanding 14-9 advantage with less than ten minutes left in play.

Another pair of goals gave the Maroons their largest lead of the contest. A final UChicago goal with a little more than two minutes to play put JCU in a 17-9 deficit as the game neared its end. The Blue and Gold were held scoreless in the last 14 minutes of play by the stingy UChicago defense, as John Carroll fell 17-9.

Statistically speaking, it was the Maroons who had a general advantage over the Blue Streaks. JCU lost the assist battle 12-3, the shots on goal battle 21-16, the ground ball battle 17-14, and the caused turnover battle narrowly 10-9. However, the Blue Streaks tied the Maroons in shots taken and had a slight 15-13 advantage in draw controls.

Individually, Grombala led the way in her final game as part of the Blue and Gold. She finished with five goals and an assist on seven shots on goal. She also led with five draw controls. Gerlach finished with a goal and an assist as well as four draw controls. Without a doubt, she goes down as one of the program's best players ever. 

Carly Ross had three caused turnovers on defense, followed by Molly Carroll, who caused two. Kaleigh Kotula finished with four saves on the day as well.

Katie Large of UChicago finished with a game-high nine total points, coming thanks to three goals and six assists of her own. Maroon goalie Emily Feigen finished with seven saves as well.

UChicago advances to the Regional Finals to take on the winner of Aurora & Denison, and John Carroll concludes its historic season 17-2.
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