John Carroll was facing an opponent today which had scored at least ten goals in the first half of all five of its first five games.

The Blue Streaks held undefeated Wooster to just four first half goals after owning an early 3-1 lead. But Wooster found the net times in the second half to turn a close game into a 14-6 victory over host JCU on a deceivingly cold Saturday afternoon in University Heights, Ohio.

This was the first match between the two programs, who were both picked to finish in the top four of their respective conference preseason polls (Wooster second in the North Coast Athletic Conference, JCU fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference). 

Kaleigh Kotula tended the net for the Blue and Gold, the first start of her collegiate career.  Previously, she had played in a total of seven games and had faced 33 shots. Today, the Fighting Scots hurled 30 shots at the sophomore, 22 of which required her intervention.  Garnering eight saves, it was the most of her career in a single game.

Wooster opened up the scoring a little over two minutes into the contest off a free position shot.  After that, John Carroll took the reigns, firing home three scores across an eight minute span. Brooke McQuinn, Colleen Grombala, and Alex Heishman netted their 12th, 15th, and 12th goals of the season, respectively.  They would be the only Blue Streaks to score in the game.

JCU still had Wooster at a single tally until the final 13 minutes of the half. After five minutes of staunch defense, the Blue Streaks allowed three straight goals over a six minute span to give Wooster back the lead with a little over seven minutes of action remaining in the first half. That lead would stay put, with th Fighting Scots taking the 4-3 advantage into the break.

Many of the Fighting Scot's chances came from John Carroll turnovers.  In the first half, JCU turned the ball over 18 times, but were only forced into eight of them. The Blue Streaks, while forcing 13 of Wooster's 30 turnovers, would finish with 35 of their own.

Unfortunately for the Blue Streaks, the second half was all Wooster.  Achieving a 10-3 goal advantage, the Fighting Scots had four players combine for 16 points, led by Emma Lawrence (three goals and three assists), Ashley Boersma (three goals), and Jordan Stone (three assists).

Grombala would another goal to her tally as McQuinn smoked two fireballs into the Wooster net, but that would spell the end of JCU's scoring efforts.

Despite the loss, John Carroll held Wooster to its fewest goals this season (the previous mark had been 17 vs. both Capital and Bethany) and did a nice job slowing down the Fighting Scots' leading scorer, Alex Mellis, who tallied just one goal.
  
Additionally, Brooke McQuinn earned her 200th ground ball early in the match, further solidifying her spot at the top of John Carroll's all-time ground ball list. McQuinn added seven more throughout the game.

Grombala and McQuinn are now tied for fourth in JCU's all-time points list with 148 apiece.

Those two also led JCU with draw controls (5 apiece) as part of the Blue Streaks' 13-9 advantage. But John Carroll struggled in clears this afternoon, successful making the transition 14 out of 24 times.

The Blue Streaks will enter into conference play next Saturday at home against Muskingum University at 1:00 p.m.