GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Davenport got to celebrate the careers of three seniors, all of whom spent the last four years playing on the women's lacrosse team at DU. Alex Yates, Brianna Longnecker, and Taylor Wood were part of the first team to win a national championship in women's lacrosse at DU back in 2016 and are now members of the first team to make it to the GLIAC Tournament! The Panthers faced Concordia-St. Paul in their regular-season finale. The Golden Bears came to play as they defeated DU 17-8.
 
The Basics
Final Score: Davenport University-8 | Concordia-St. Paul-17
Location: Grand Rapids, Mich.
Record: DU (8-8, 5-6) | CSP (10-6, 7-4)
 
Goals Per Period
First period: DU-4 | CSP-6
Second period: DU-4 | CSP-11

How It Happened
This game had widely ranging stories and outcomes from one half of play to the next. In the first half, the Panthers were exchanging blows with the Golden Bears. CSP opened up the game building up a lead of 5-1. After a timeout by head coach Rob Harris, the Panthers stormed back and scored three unanswered goals. Taylor Ries scored two during the stretch and Aaliyah Miller added one, cutting the Golden Bears lead down to one goal with 14:02 to play in the half. Both teams went just over 12 minutes without scoring following the second goal by Ries, but CSP got the final say as they netted an unassisted goal with two minutes left on the clock. Davenport went into halftime trailing by just two goals, a deficit that very feasible to come back from in the second half.
 
The Panthers started the second half exactly how they wanted, by getting on the board first. Brenna Knoll scored her 39^th of the season on an unassisted effort just under two minutes into the half. The Golden Bears lead was cut down to just a single goal. CSP started pulling away slowly after the goal by Knoll, they scored two to bring their lead back up to three goals. Knoll cut the run with another unassisted goal just a few minutes later, by the Golden Bears responded with two of their own goals and their lead was up to four goals. Ries got in on the scoring action, netting an unassisted goal just over 10 minutes into the game, bringing the game to 10-7 in favor of CSP. The game got out of reach for DU when the Golden Bears scored five consecutive goals, following Ries's goal with 19:20 to play, and built their lead up to eight goals with just over six minutes to play in the game. The Panthers fought throughout the entire game, but the deficit was too much to overcome that late in the game and the Golden Bears spoiled senior day.

Inside The Box
Ryann Deuel (2 G, A, GB, 6 DC, 1-1 FPS)
Ries (3 G, GB, 2-2 FPS)
Knoll (2 G, GB, CT, 3 DC, 0-2 FPS)
Jordyn Harrison (3 GB, CT)
Amber Park (2 GB, 2 CT, 3 DC)
Mackenzie Maschke (2 GB)
Makenna Pitchford (49:24 minutes, 14 GA, 6 saves)
Yates (10:36, 3 GA, 1 save)
 
Interesting Facts
During the game, Deuel reached a significant career milestone. She came into the game with 299 career draw controls, currently the school's all-time leader in this category, and needed just one to reach 300. Deuel recorded six draw controls in the game and now has 305 total over her career. She becomes the first Panther to ever reach 300 draw controls!

Up Next
Davenport has plenty to celebrate for this season and one of those is that their season isn't over yet. The Panthers qualified for the GLIAC Tournament this season, first time in school history, and earned the fifth seed. Davenport will face Concordia-St. Paul in the quarterfinals on Tuesday in St. Paul, Minn. The game is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. Et (6:00 p.m. CT).

Story by: Devin Steiner
 
Picture credit: Devin Steiner