Chicago, Ill. - In their final non-conference match of the 2024 season, the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks women's lacrosse team welcomed the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (UWSP) Pointers to Stuart Field for a Saturday afternoon contest. All it took was 37 seconds for the Hawks to get the goal-scoring going. In the end, the Hawks (3-6) recorded a 20-6 victory over the Pointers (0-5).

During the contest, seniors Faith Busche and Kelly Hitchcock both reached career milestones. Busche, a Computer Science major out of Gaithersburg, Maryland, reached 100 career points after recording her fourth goal of the game in the second quarter at the 1:29 mark. Hitchcock, a Mechanical Engineering major out of Scottsdale, Arizona, recorded her 100th career goal with her sixth goal of the game in the third quarter at the 4:25 mark. 

First Quarter (Illinois Tech 7 - UWSP 1)

• Only 37 seconds into the contest, the Hawks found the back of the net when Antonia Matrinez scored her first of the game. Martinez took her defender on 1v1, hit the spin move, and shot a left-handed shot, sending the ball right past the Pointers goalkeeper. 

• At 11:19, Martinez picked up her second with an unassisted goal. With a defender on her and another one crashing in, Martinez sent a jump shot into the back of the net. 

• 12 seconds later, Kelly Hitchcock scored with an unassisted goal for her first of the game. After winning the draw control and ground ball, Hitchcock took off towards the goal. Running past any defender that came at her, Hitchcock placed herself right in front of the goal before placing her shot into the net. 

• Then, at 8:16, Hitchcock scored off a Martinez assist. After being cut-off by a defender, Martinez passed the ball off to Hitchcock. Hitchcock received the ball and took an underhand shot, sending the ball into the back of the net. Here, the Hawks led the Pointers 4-0.

• The Pointers found their first goal of the game at the 6:28 mark with an Marissa Van Dyke unassisted goal. 

• Martinez then scored her third of the game, earning herself a hat-trick, at 4:19. Martinez was able to create enough space between her and her defender to find herself an open scoring path and put the Hawks ahead 5-1. 

• In a man-up situation, Hitchcock scored her third of the game, giving her a hat-trick as well with 2:41 remaining. After Martinez was awarded a free position opportunity, she assisted the goal when she immediately passed the ball off to Hitchcock who scored with a goal into the lower left corner. 

• With 54 seconds remaining in the quarter, Martinez scored yet another unassisted goal. With two defender coming in to sandwich Martinez, she hit the spin move to get away from them before firing off a shot into the back of the net

• At the end of the first quarter, the Hawks led the Pointers 7-1

Second Quarter (Illinois Tech 7 - UWSP 3)

• Leaving off where they ended and following the start of the game, the Hawks found the back of the net just 17 seconds into the start of the second quarter. Faith Busche scored her first of the game with a bounce shot. 

• 39 seconds later, Busche found the back of the net again. Martinez assisted the play when she saw Busche making a run into open space and passed her the ball. Busche received the ball, turned towards the net, and placed her shot right past the Pointers goalkeeper to put the Hawks up 9-1. 

• At 12:50 on the clock, the Pointers Allison Talir scored an unassisted goal for their second of the game. 

• Martinez then scored her fifth of the game 30 seconds later to put the Hawks ahead 10-2.

• At 11:41 and 10:56, Van Dyke scored back-to-back goals for the Pointers.

• Busche and Martinez paired up for another Hawk goal at 9:06 on the clock. After Busche's defender left her to go help guard Martinez, Martinez passed the ball off to Busche who immediately placed her shot into the back of the net, giving her a hat-trick.

• Nearly seven minutes would pass before another goal would be scored. Martinez broke the scoreless streak with a shot into the back of the net at 2:22. 

• Almost a minute later, Busche scored an unassisted goal of her own. This goal, at 1:29, marked Busche's 100th career point as a Scarlet Hawk.

• The final goal of the half came from Hitchcock off a Martinez assist at 1:01. Seeing Hitchcock run into space and away from her defender, Martinez sent an overhead pass in her direction. Hitchcock received the ball and sent her shot into the opposite lower corner. 

• At halftime, the Hawks held a 10-goal, 14-4 lead over the Pointers. From this point on, the game had a running clock. 

Third Quarter (Illinois Tech 4 - UWSP 1)

• The first goal of the third quarter came from the stick of Busche. This unassisted goal marked Busche's fifth and final goal of the game. 

• In a man-up situation, Martinez scored her seventh and final goal of the game at 7:39 on an unassisted play.

• Hitchcock then scored two unassisted goals for the Hawks to give them a 18-4 lead. Hitchcock's goals came at 6:12 and 4:25. Hitchcock's goal at 4:25 marked her 100th career goal as a Scarlet Hawk. Sprinting towards goal, Hitchcock received the ball, took a few steps, and fired off a shot into the upper left corner of the net. 

• The Pointers Courtney Leising found the back of the net with an unassisted goal at 2:25 to give them their lone goal of the quarter.

• At the end of the third quarter, the Hawks led the Pointers 18-5.

Fourth Quarter (Illinois Tech 2 - UWSP 1)

• Iona Pettigrew joined in on the goal scoring action at the 10:41 mark in the final quarter with a free-position goal. Pettigrew placed her shot into the lower right corner. 

• Leising of the Pointers scored the visiting teams final goal of the game at 6:59 off an unassisted shot. 

• Hitchcock closed out the game with the final goal of the contest at the 4:29 mark off a free position shot. 

• At the final horn, the Hawks won the non-conference game 20-6. 

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Kelly Hitchcock - 7 goals, 12 shots, 7 shots on goals, 6 ground balls, 3 caused turnovers, 15 draw controls, 1-for-1 in free position shots, reached 100 career goals

• Antonia Martinez - 7 goals, 5 assists, 12 shots, 11 shots on goal, 3 ground balls, 3 draw controls, 2-for-2 in free position shots

• Faith Busche - 5 goals, 10 shots, 7 shots on goal, 2 draw controls, reached 100 career points

• Iona Pettigrew - 1 goal, 3 shots, 3 shots on goal, 1-for-1 in free position shots

• Caitlin Davitt - winning goal keeper, 60 minutes played, 10 saves, reached 100 saves for the season 

Pointers Standouts

• Marissa Van Dyke - 3 goals, 8 shots, 7 shots on goal, 2 ground balls, 1 caused turnover

• Courtney Leising - 2 goals, 8 shots, 5 shots on goal, 2 ground balls, 2 caused turnovers 2 draw controls, 1-for-2 in free position shots 

• Allison Talir - 1 goal, 2 shots, 2 shots on goal, 3 ground balls, 1 caused turnover, 2 draw controls, 1-for-2 in free position shots

Inside the Box Score

• The Hawks out shot the Warriors 37-22 with the Hawks recording 28 shots on goal versus the Pointers 16 

• Illinois Tech finished with 10 saves and UWSP finished with 8

• 13 turnovers were committed by the Hawks and 12 were committed by the Pointers

• In clears, the Pointers were successful 13-of-17 times while the Hawks were successful 16-of-19 times

• UWSP led the Hawks in ground balls 13-12

• The Hawks won 21-of-30 draw controls

• The Hawks were successful in all four free position shot opportunities while the Pointers went 2-for-5 

Up Next

The Hawks now turn their focus towards Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play. Conference action is set to begin in one week on Saturday, April 6th, when the Hawks host the Marian University Sabres to Stuart Field for a 10:00 AM contest.