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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
Kendall Gessner
Kendall Gessner adds four goals during the Blue Streaks dominance on Saturday.
28
Winner John Carroll JOHN CAR 8-0, 8-0
0
Muskingum MUSKINGU 0-5, 0-5
Winner
John Carroll JOHN CAR
8-0, 8-0
28
Final
0
Muskingum MUSKINGU
0-5, 0-5
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
John Carroll JOHN CAR 17 11 28
Muskingum MUSKINGU 0 0 0

Game Recap: Women's Lacrosse | | By: Luke Potosky, Staff Writer

Shutout and 28 Goal Effort, Propel JCU to 8-0

NEW CONCORD, Ohio -- A tale of two seasons defined this game before the opening faceoff as red-hot 7-0 John Carroll Women's Lacrosse traveled to New Concord to take on 0-4 Muskingum. 

John Carroll came in having hopes of a first-half season sweep, and quite simply, a win on Saturday meant they would have defeated every team in the Ohio Athletic Conference in their first eight games.

Those hopes came to fruition as John Carroll shutout Muskingum 28-0 on March 20 at North Athletic Turf Field, giving the Blue and Gold a remarkable victory to add to their now 8-0 record.

After a 30 minute delay due to a scoreboard malfunction, JCU started out on fire and never looked back the rest of the way.

Claire Mezzoprete (Olivia Hanulak assist), Colleen Grombala, Kendall Gessner (Grombala assist), and Emma Workman (Jenna Ginsberg assist) scored four goals in a matter of 100 seconds to open up with a 4-0 lead. Carly Ross (Jenna Ginsberg assist) followed shortly after to make it a five-goal advantage.

After that, the goals kept coming as Jill Jarem, Carly Ross (Jarem assist), Colleen Grombala, Lainey Donalson (free-position), and Donalson again (Grombala assist) made it a 10-0 contest and enforced a running clock.

Later, Madison Polaski scored her first goal of the season and then assisted Jill Jarem on the next goal to make it a 12-0 advantage for the Blue and Gold. 

Then, Olivia Hanulak (Maddy Eifert assist), Kendall Gessner, Emma Workman, Colleen Grombala (Workman assist), and Mary Doherty (Sophie Grabowski assist) closed out the onslaught of first-half goals to give JCU a 17-0 halftime lead.

JCU put on a remarkable show on both sides of the field in the first half. The offense and midfield put 24 of 32 shots on goal and won 16 of 18 draw controls. The defense tallied 17 ground balls, caused 11 turnovers, and impressively only allowed Muskingum to get off two first-half shots.

13 different Blue Streaks recorded some form of points in the first 30 minutes of play as well, a symbol of a strong and well-rounded effort that lasted the whole 60 minutes.

To kickstart the second half, Colleen Grombala (Shannon Burdick assist) scored her fourth goal of the contest to make it an 18-0 affair. She was followed up a few minutes later by Alex Heishman (Madison Polaski assist) and Maddy Eifert who gave JCU an insurmountable 20-0 advantage.

Soon after, Colleen Grombala would score her fifth (Sophie Grabowski assist) & sixth goals. She was quickly followed by Kendall Gessner's third goal, giving her a hat trick and a 23-0 JCU lead.

Gessner scored again a few minutes later and was promptly followed up by Claire Mezzoprete who made it an astonishing 25-0 advantage for John Carroll.

Finally, goals from Jill Jarem (which give her a hat trick), Alex Heishman (Carly Ross assist), and Heishman again (Shannon Burdick assist) put an end to the game with JCU on top 28-0.

The 28 goal margin of victory is tied for the largest in school history, going back to a 29-1 victory over Wilmington in 2018. As a team today, the Blue Streaks had 39 out of 51 shots on goal, won 26 out of 29 draw controls, had 34 ground balls, and caused 20 turnovers. 

"The reason for our success is our culture," said Head Coach Rachel Dell. "For years we've recruited players who want to play the way we do, which is fast, aggressive and with a lot of subs. We are doing nothing differently than we've ever done on the field, we are just subbing more frequently and pushing the pace. We get better through cleaning up the small errors that slip by us when we get sloppy or lazy. We also need to continue to develop more scorers and execute other options off the scoring plays."

Point leaders for John Carroll included Colleen Grombala (six goals, two assists), Kendall Gessner (four goals), Jill Jarem (three goals, one assist), Alex Heishman (three goals), Emma Workman (two goals, one assist), Carly Ross (two goals, one assist), Madison Polaski (one goal, two assists), and Shannon Burdick (three assists).

Overall, 15 different Blue Streaks tallied points.

Gessner and Ross stood out with four ground balls each and were followed by Molly Carroll and Lainey Donalson with three ground balls apiece. Ross also caused a game-high four turnovers as well.

"Games with a large margin of victory are not easy to play because of the patience required to possess the ball," Dell added. "It's taxing on the mind and body of the offense because if we do turn the ball over, we are trying our hardest to regain possession. There's rarely a break for the attack and midfield in games like today."

Up next, John Carroll hosts Ohio Northern at home on Saturday, March 24 at 1 PM. 
 
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