ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Panthers faced a familiar opponent in the first round of the GLIAC Tournament, the Golden Bears of Concordia-St. Paul. The Golden Bears won the two regular-season games this season and carried that success into this game against Davenport. The Panthers got behind early and it's always a challenge erasing a deficit on the road. Davenport never gave up, cutting the Golden Bears lead down to two a couple times in the game, but could never tie or take the lead. Davenport made major improvements from their first season in the GLIAC and are trending on the up and up currently.
 
The Basics
Final Score: Davenport University-9 | Concordia-St. Paul-15
Location: St. Paul, Minn.
Record: DU (8-9) | CSP (11-6)
 
Goals Per Period
First period: DU-3 | CSP-6
Second period: DU-6 | CSP-9

How It Happened
Concordia-St. Paul got on the board first, scoring a goal 40 seconds into the contest. The Golden Bears followed that up with two more, increasing their lead to three. Davenport got their first goal of the game just under 10 minutes into the game, Aaliyah Miller scored her 54^th of the season on an unassisted effort. CSP scored two more and then Miller scored her second of the game. The Golden Bears scored one more in the half and then Miller, with 1:09 to play in the half, scored her third of the game. Davenport went into halftime trailing by a score of 6-3.
 
A quick goal in the second half for DU, scoring in just 35 seconds into the half, put the Panthers within striking distance of the Golden Bears. However, five unanswered goals by CSP would stretch the lead to seven goals with just over 11 minutes to play in the half. Miller scored a man up goal and an own goal in the 23 minute of the half cut the lead down to six. The lead hovered around five for the remainder of the game, despite goals by Ryann Deuel and Miller in the last ten minutes of the half.

Inside The Box
Miller (5 G, 2 GB, CT, DC, 1-2 FPS)
Deuel (2 G, A, GB, 2 DC, 2-3 FPS)
Taylor Ries (G, A, CT)
Jordyn Harrison (3 GB, CT)
Amber Park (2 GB, CT, 6 DC)
Mackenzie Maschke (2 GB)
Reilly Noble (2 GB, CT)
Mackenzie Kelbert (2 GB)
Makenna Pitchford (60:00 minutes, 15 GA, 10 saves, 7 ground balls)

Up Next
The Panthers have officially wrapped up the 2019 season. Davenport went 8-9 overall and 5-6 in conference play this season. The team made strides in the right direction this year, qualifying for the GLIAC Tournament for the first time in program history.

Story by: Devin Steiner
 
Picture credit: Walter Cronk