Last weekend the women’s lacrosse team traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota to face off against Augsburg University and Concordia St. Paul. The Wildcats swept the weekend beating Augsburg 19-3 Friday night and 11-7 against Concordia Sunday afternoon. These two wins come after the ‘Cats bye week.

The extra week off late in the season allowed the team to really get healthy. Last week there were around 15 healthy players on the roster, which is about half of the team.

“We really needed a couple of days during that week to just get our bodies back, and also it gave us a really long time to be able to prepare for Concordia St. Paul, which was nice,” Head Coach Lindsey Majkrzak said. “But ultimately it was just about how you can make sure your body recovers while maintaining that fitness level.”

Taking it back to the Friday night game, the Wildcats were able to score 19 goals and only allowed three goals to be scored by Augsburg. Many players came away with goals like junior attacker Clara Johnson with two goals, senior midfielder Kate Mongold who came away with three goals in the game on Friday, and junior Minnie Bittell added four total points against the Auggies.

“We were calm, we were able to cause turnovers in the midfield pretty easily against that team, and were mostly just on offense. The ability to have that many people touch the ball is really good … that was a good way for us to get touches and run through our offices and get some good looks to go and create some chemistry before that game on Sunday,” Majkrzak said.

Sunday afternoon against Concordia St. Paul the ‘Cats got the win with the final score of 11-7. The ‘Cats were down early in the first quarter but turned the heat on and scored five goals, holding Concordia to just one goal in the second period.

“This is one of the best defensive games that I’ve seen … we started slow, and then just the build that we saw in that game was really important and also really impressive because that’s what you need late season. You need to be able to like not to panic when you get down,” Majkrzak said.

The ‘Cats have now beaten their Minnesota rivals twice this season and have taken control in the series winning five out of the last six meetings. Majkrzak’s switch in the offensive strategy paired with a defense that seems to be getting better each week. The ‘Cats have won three in a row heading into the final stretch of the season.

“Only allowing seven goals against a team like that that has such an overall team-high shooting percentage is really impressive … it’s a testament to our defense’s ability to turn the ball over that game,” Majkrzak said. “And also, just offensive possession … this is the way you want the game to go.”

Friday, April 21 at 5 p.m., the Wildcats will face off against Davenport at home in the dome. The team will also host Grand Valley State on Sunday, April 23 at 12 p.m. to end their regular season.