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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
WLAX
Carmen Ferrante
Blue Streaks pile on 26 goals in win over Polar Bears
4
Ohio Northern ONUW 4-5
26
Winner John Carroll JCUW 9-0
Ohio Northern ONUW
4-5
4
Final
26
John Carroll JCUW
9-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Ohio Northern ONUW 2 2 4
John Carroll JCUW 14 12 26

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

John Carroll Wins in 26-4 Rout, Improves to School-Best 9-0 Record

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- When John Carroll Women's Lacrosse opened their 2021 season in Ada, they found themselves down three goals to Ohio Northern just a few minutes into the game. 

They ended up winning 24-8 back in February and fast-forwarding five weeks later, JCU ensured they did not fall into that same situation.

On March 27, John Carroll defeated Ohio Northern 26-4 at Don Shula Stadium as they improved to 9-0.

Colleen Grombala opened the day's scoring with an unassisted goal. She was followed shortly after by Emma Workman (free-position), Mary Doherty (Jenna Ginsberg assist), and Lainey Donalson (Claire Mezzoprete assist), making it 4-0 JCU.

A few minutes later, Jenna Ginsberg (Sophie Grabowski assist) and Grombala made it a 6-0 affair.

Ohio Northern soon scored their first goal of the game, but John Carroll responded with five more of their own.

Claire Mezzoprete converted off of a 40-yard pass from Grombala and was followed by the likes of Kendall Gessner, Ginsberg (free-position), Mary Doherty, and Olivia Gerlach who all scored to make it 11-1. 

Coach Rachel Dell mentioned postgame how the 40-yard connection between Grombala and Mezzoprete was a reflection of how hard the team has been working on improving their passing and turnover rate.

After an Ohio Northern free-position score, Olivia Hanulak, Lainey Donalson (Ginsberg assist), and Donalson again made it a 14-2 Blue Streak advantage at halftime.

The second stretch of 30 minutes was more of the same as the Blue Streaks scored the first ten goals of the second half. 

Five of their first ten goals occurred in the first ten minutes of the half. Alex Heishman, Kendall Gessner, Colleen Grombala (free-position), Mary Doherty (Gessner assist), and Heishman again made it a convincing 19-2 lead.

The scoring kept coming as JCU scored another set of five goals in a row. Scores from Emma Workman (Jill Jarem assist), Kendall Gessner, Jenna Ginsberg, Maddy Eifert (Olivia Hanulak assist), and Colleen Grombala (free-position) made it 24-2 in favor of John Carroll.

Ohio Northern scored their first goal of the second half with 6:40 left in the game but was quickly countered by Jill Jarem, making it 25-3 JCU.

The Polar Bears scored again, but a Mary Doherty (Carly Ross assist) goal with 30 seconds left put the cherry on top and made it a 26-4 final.

14 different Blue Streaks tallied points on the day. Leaders included Lainey Donalson (three goals), Kendall Gessner (three goals, one assist), Mary Doherty (four goals), Jenna Ginsberg (three goals, two assists), and Colleen Grombala (four goals, one assist). "In the past few games, we have turned the ball over more than I would have liked...today, we connected on some beautiful passes that ended in the back of the net," veteran coach Rachel Dell said.

Grombala reached a historic milestone as she reached the 300 career point mark, adding on to her remarkable career for the Blue and Gold. "Colleen's creativity and composure while being face guarded continue to impress me," Dell said. "She works hard for every ball she touches and I'm proud of her for collecting five points today and 300 for her career."

In the midfield, it was Mary Doherty who dominated with eight ground balls and 13 faceoff wins. Coach Dell was pleased with her performance overall. "Mary had a great game. She won or directed so many draws to her teammates on the circle, [that] it allowed us to push the fast break right off of possession."

The stalwart defense led by the likes of Molly Carroll, Madelyn Veto, and others also played a role in allowing only four goals in twelve Polar Bears shots. Goalkeeper Kaleigh Kotula also earned her 100th save of her career in the midst of the stellar defensive performance. "If we gave stats for speed and pressure on the ball [Maddy] Veto would have had a career day," Dell said. "We needed her confidence to challenge the ball handler when she did and to blaze from end-to-end after she picked up or dropped loose balls."

Overall, Coach Dell dished out lots of praise for her team on the day, as they gave yet another strong performance. "We had objectives today to have a more aggressive re-defend and increase the defensive pressure to make it hard for ONU to settle. We also knew that [ONU] liked to shoot off of won draws, so winning the draw was going to be hugely important to preventing [ONU] from playing offense."

Dell concluded by saying, "We played so clean and so fast today. It was a great way to celebrate our best start we've ever had." The 9-0 start to the season by the Blue and Gold eclipses the 8-0 start they had in 2018.

Up next, John Carroll travels to Heidelberg on March 31 at 7 pm in hopes of improving on their record-setting start.
 
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