Chicago, Ill. - In a game in which they held the lead for the majority of the match, the Illinois Tech women's lacrosse team found themselves trailing by one goal late in the fourth quarter after visiting Lawrence University scored three unanswered goals to take a 9-8 lead. But Antonia Martinez scored a pair of goals late for the Scarlet Hawks, including the go-ahead goal with 2:20 remaining, to help propel the Hawks to a 10-9 Senior Day victory over the Vikings Saturday afternoon at Stuart Field.

For the Scarlet Hawks, it was their second win on the season, and first win in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play for 2025. 

Martinez finished the match with a season-high eight points on six goals and two assists. It was the fourth time this season that Martinez scored six or more goals in a match. The six goals on the afternoon also put Martinez over the 100 career goals scored mark, with Martinez now sitting at 105 goals scored in just under two full seasons with the Scarlet Hawks.

Martinez opened the scoring in the match at 12:26 of the first quarter on an unassisted goal. Just over two minutes later Isabelle Niebler gave the Scarlet Hawks a 2-0 lead when she scored unassisted. The Vikings' Beth McArthur would get Lawrence on the board when she scored on a feed from Savannah Larsen during a player-up opportunity at 7:14. The score would remain 2-1 deep into the opening quarter until the teams exchanged 3 goals in the final 1:35. Illinois Tech's Victoria Akirtava would score on a free position shot at 1:35, giving the Hawks a 3-1 lead. The goal was Akirtava's first career goal scored. The lead was short-lived however, as the Vikings scored a pair of goals over the final 49 seconds to tie the match at 3-3 at the quarter break.

Martinez would put the Scarlet Hawks back on top when she scored 3 consecutive goals in the opening minutes of the second quarter to give Illinois Tech a 6-3 lead. But a pair of goals by the Vikings Lydia Lueck and Savannah Larsen sent Lawrence into half time trailing by just one goal at 6-5..

The Vikings would draw even with the Hawks shortly after halftime when Sophia Labrecque scored on a player-up chance at 12:43 to tie the score at 6-6. Martinez would facilitate the Scarlet Hawks next two goals, working behind the net and feeding Akirtava and Niebler on consecutive goals to give the Hawks an 8-6 lead with 5:27 to go in the third quarter. But as they had done throughout the match, the Vikings kept coming back, with Larsen scoring her third goal of the match with 1:40 remaining in the quarter to pull Lawrence within one goal at 8-7 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Vikings seemed to draw momentum from the late third quarter goal by Larsen, as they would score the first two goals in the fourth quarter to take a 9-8 lead. First, Larsen scored her fourth of the match at 12:16 to tie the score at 8-8. Then the Vikings' Laura Wilkins picked up a rebound and scored at 9:52, giving the Vikings their first lead of the match at 9:52. After a scoreless stretch of five minutes by both teams, including the Hawks killing off a two-minute yellow card, Martinez would begin the Hawks' comeback. On the game tying goal, Martinez faked an exchange of the ball to Niebler behind the Vikings net, and instead circled around to the right post and fired a shot past Lawrence goalkeeper Evelyn Pryadkin to tie the score at 9-9 with 4:55 remaining. Martinez and Niebler would attempt to connect on another behind the net exchange over two minutes later, but Niebler was unable to receive the exchange from Martinez and the ball hit the turf. Martinez recovered the ground ball and circled back to the left post and put a shot past Pryadkin for the go-ahead goal and eventual game-winner at 2:20.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Toni Martinez led all scorers with 8 points on 6 goals and 2 assists. Martinez had 7 shots on goal, 1 ground ball, 1 caused turnover and 4 draw controls
• Isabelle Niebler scored 2 goals on 7 shots, 4 on goal. Niebler also recovered a game-high 7 ground balls, had 2 caused turnovers and 1 draw control
• Victoria Akirtava scored 2 goals, her first career goals, recovered 2 ground balls and caused 2 turnovers
• Mercy Godfrey made 13 saves for the win, while recovering 2 grounds balls The 13 saves by Godfrey put her over 200 saves in her career at 212

Inside The Box Score

• Savannah Larsen led Lawrence with 5 points on 4 goals and 1 assist, recovered 4 ground balls, caused 3 turnovers and had 1 draw control
• Beth McArthur had 1 goal, 1 assist, 5 ground balls , 3 caused turnovers and 5 draw controls for the Vikings.
• Lawrence outshot Illinois Tech 26-21
• Turnovers were nearly even, with the Vikings turning the ball over 17 times and the Scarlet Hawks 16 times
• The Vikings won the ground ball battle 22-15, and draw controls 15-7

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will conclude their 2025 campaign with a home conference match against Lake Forest College on Wednesday, starting at 5:00pm.