ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Davenport women's lacrosse team raised some eyebrows on Friday as they took the top-seeded Grand Valley State Lakers into the fourth quarter with a lead. DU found themselves up 9-8 with 10 minutes to play, but could not score again. The Lakers ripped off the final four goals of the game and advanced to the tournament finals with a 12-9 victory. The two regular season games saw the Lakers win by a combined plus-20, but this one was a tight contest throughout.
The Panthers roared out of the gates and stunned GVSU with a 4-0 lead after the first quarter.
Brianna Rodriguez,
Gabby Basha,
Alyssa Bird, and
Blakely Malpass were the goal scorers in the first quarter. The Lakers then opened up the second quarter with four straight goals to tie the game. Zoe Ziegler, Gracie Bancroft, Jillian Bingman, and Ziegler again were the goal scorers for GVSU. The Bancroft and Ziegler's second goal were both with a player-up.
Rodriguez scored her second of the game at 9:13 of the second quarter to regain the lead, but the Lakers scored the next three goals to take a 7-5 lead. Ella Boose scored the last two of those goals. Malpass scored the first goal of the second half at 12:30 from
Mika Kulynych. Boose then added another goal at 4:25 of the third quarter for the 8-6 lead.
Davenport scored the next three goals to take a 9-8 lead into the fourth quarter.
Ele Darmofal, Malpass, and
Theadora Krueger (player-up) gave DU the one-goal lead. Bancroft scored the next two goals including the game-winner at 5:09 from Boose. Ashleigh Rothe and Bingman closed out the scoring.
The Lakers won 18-of-25 draw controls including 6-1 in the fourth quarter. Malpass scored three goals in her final game as a Panther. Krueger caused five turnovers to lead the team and
Jade Remacle also had four caused turnovers. Krueger also led the team with five draw controls.
