Chicago, Ill. - Despite falling behind 7-1 early in their match against Elmhurst, the Illinois Tech women's lacrosse team came storming back to pull within one goal with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. But Elmhurst tacked on an insurance goal one minute later, and the Blue Jays held on to defeat the Scarlet Hawks 12-10 Saturday afternoon at Stuart Field. The Scarlet Hawks fell to 1-1 on the season, while the Blue Jays opened their season 1-0.

First Quarter (Elmhurst 2 - Illinois Tech 0)
The game remained scoreless until Elmhurst's Kendall Schieppe opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 8:45. Gracie Eastman of the Blue Jays added a player-up goal at the 3:19 mark to put the Blue Jays up 2-0 heading into the second quarter.

Second Quarter (Elmhurst 5 - Illinois Tech 4)
Elmhurst goals from Paige Palermo, Schieppe and a pair from Eastman extended the Blue Jays lead to 6-0 before Kelly Hitchcock got the Scarlet Hawks on the board with an unassisted tally at 5:08. Schieppe would add a player-up goal at 3:26 to put Elmhurst back up by six goals at 7-1. But the Scarlet Hawks closed out the half with three unanswered goals, with Hitchcock adding a pair of goals in less than a minute, and Antonia Martinez scoring with one second left, allowing the Hawks to pull within three goals at the break.

Third Quarter (Elmhurst 3 - Illinois Tech 1)
Elmhurst scored three of the four goals in the third quarter to extend their lead to 10-5 heading into the final frame.

Fourth Quarter (Illinois Tech 5 - Elmhurst 2)
Illinois Tech started their comeback effort just 29 seconds into the fourth quarter, when Martinez scored on an unassisted tally. Faith Busche followed up with a goal of her own on a feed from Martinez to pull within three goals at 10-7. The Blue Jays were able to get that goal back at the 9:41 mark with a player-up goal from Andrea Murtland to extend their lead back to four goals. The Scarlet Hawks were not finished, however, Martinez scored at 6:40 to trim the Hawks' deficit to 11-8. Hitchcock followed with a player-up goal at 5:11 to shave the Blue Jays' lead to 11-9. On the ensuing draw, Hitchcock won possession and raced down the right side and fired past Elmhurst goalkeeper Jacq Vanoni for her sixth goal of the match to pull the Hawks within one goal at 11-10 at 5:02. Unfortunately the Hawks were not able to win possession of the subsequent draw, and just under a minute later Elmhurst's Gracie Eastman deposited her fifth goal of the match for an important insurance goal, and the Blue Jays were able to close out the match.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Kelly Hitchcock with 6 goals on 12 shots on goal, along with 6 ground balls, 2 caused turnovers and 9 draw controls.
• Antonia Martinez with 3 goals and 2 assists for 5 points, while recovering 3 ground balls and causing 3 turnovers.
• Faith Busche with a goal, 5 ground balls, 2 caused turnovers and 3 draw controls.

Blue Jays Watch

• Gracie Eastman with 5 goals and 6 draw controls.
• Kendall Schieppe with 4 goals.
• Andrea Murtland with 2 goals.
• Jacq Vanoni with 15 saves for the win.

Inside The Box Score

• Elmhurst had a 35-28 advantage in shots
• Elmhurst was 3-7 in free position attempts, while Illinois Tech was 2-6.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks are back in action on Tuesday, March 5th, with a non-conference match against Adrian at 4:00 PM at Stuart Field.