NAPERVILLE, Ill. - The Saint Mary's lacrosse team closed out the game with eight unanswered goals to take a 14-11 win at North Central on Wednesday night.

 

The Cardinals struck first with a pair of goals in the opening four minutes of action. Emma Zmudzinski made a save on the next North Central shot, and the Belles went down to the other end and scored as Valentina Rubio put away the first goal of the night for Saint Mary's. Christiana Singler came away with the next draw control, and the Belles capitalized on the possession with a goal by Cate Krema to tie things up at 2-2. Another Zmudzinski save at one end led to a goal the other way with Alyssa Grant putting Saint Mary's ahead 3-2 with more than five minutes to go in the opening period. The Cardinals knotted things up with a free position goal and used two late goals in the quarter to take a 5-3 lead.

After a lot of back-and-forth play to begin the second quarter, North Central tallied a goal with just under nine minutes remaining on the clock to go ahead 6-3. Saint Mary's came right back with the response 20 seconds later. Cate Krema won the draw, and Alyssa Grant found Valentina Rubio with a pass as Rubio put away her second goal of the contest to make it a 6-4 score. The Cardinals, however, scored two goals over the final five-plus minutes of the quarter to take an 8-4 lead into the halftime break.

 

Saint Mary's got on the scoreboard first in the third period with a free position goal by Valentina Rubio. North Central responded with a goal moments later, but the Belles had a quick response with a draw control win by Alyssa Grant which led to an assist by the sophomore as Reese Bauer made it a 9-6 game. The Belles had a pair of chances miss the mark, and Christiana Singler had a chance saved before another goal by the Cardinals extended the North Central lead to 11-6. Another draw control win by Grant, however, saw the Belles strike quickly with Kathryn Kalinowski burying a goal in the waning moments of the third quarter to cut the deficit to four.

 

Grant continued a strong day on the draw as the sophomore won the opening possession of the fourth quarter. Christiana Singler sent home a free position goal less than a minute into the start of the period to make it a three-goal differential. A strong re-defend by the Belles led to a goal by Lana Skibins with just under nine minutes remaining. Grant came away with the next draw, and Skibins buried a second goal just 23 seconds later to make it an 11-10 score. With the momentum fully on the Saint Mary's side, the Belles continued to build off the energy as Paige Lyons sent home a goal to knot the game. Singler won the ensuing draw control, and Valentia Rubio gave the Belles a 12-11 lead with under eight minutes to play. Lyons sent home her second goal of the contest with four minutes remaining, and Reese Bauer capped off the scoring run with a goal with 2:30 to play. Emma Zmudzinski came up with two big saves down the stretch to keep any chance of a North Central comeback at bay as the Belles closed out the 14-11 win.

 

The Belles held a 21-8 advantage in draw controls in the contest while also out-shooting the Cardinals 30-24. 

 

Valentina Rubio led the Belles with four goals and had two ground balls, two draw controls, and two caused turnovers. Alyssa Grant had a goal, four assists, a team-high eight draw controls, a ground ball, and a caused turnover. Reese Bauer posted two goals, an assist, and a caused turnover. Lana Skibins and Paige Lyons each tallied two goals for the first multi-goal efforts of each player's careers. Cate Krema and Kathryn Kalinowski each had a goal and an assist. Krema added six draw controls and three caused turnovers while Kalinowski had two draw controls. Christiana Singler had a goal, and Julia Gorski collected an assist. Emma Zmudzinski posted a 42.1 percent save percentage in the win with eight saves.

 

The victory marks the first win under head coach Kara Visker for the Belles.

 

Saint Mary's (1-2) is now set for their home opener on Saturday, March 2 when they host Carthage at 1:00 p.m.