AURORA, Ill. – The Carthage College women's lacrosse team took care of business on Saturday afternoon to earn their first winning streak of the season with an 11-7 win at Aurora University at Vago Field.
 
The win is the second straight after dropping their season opener and improves the Lady Reds to 2-1 in 2017, while the loss handed to the Spartans drops them to 0-2.
 
Five different Lady Reds recorded two goals in the game as Bryanna Barrera, Nicole Bowman, Maddie Griffin, Greigh Hoeft and Rachel Mussell each scored a pair and Mackenzie Day finished out the scoring with one goal. 
 
In goal, Maggie Allen made five saves to earn her second win of the season.
 
Carthage fell behind early in the game behind an Aurora goal in the opening four minutes and found themselves down, 2-0, following Aurora's second goal of the day at the 12:54 mark of the first half.
 
The Lady Reds quickly bounced back however, with a 6-0 run started by Mussell and Hoeft as they combined for the first four Carthage goals on the afternoon.  Leading by four, 6-2, Aurora was able to cut the lead to three with a goal at the 3:28 mark before halftime.
 
It did not swing the momentum however as Nicole Bowman scored a pair of goals in the first ten minutes of the second half to give Carthage their largest lead of the game, 8-3. 
 
Aurora would make one final push to get back in the game with a 3-0 run over a six minute span to cut the Lady Reds' lead to just two at 8-6 with 11:01 remaining. 
 
Carthage once again had the answer and wouldn't allow the Spartans to get any closer as Griffin and Barrera outscored Aurora 3-1 down the stretch to seal the win in a game that saw Carthage outshoot the host 32-16 and 22-12 on target.
 
Carthage also earned an edge in the game on ground balls, 25-22, led by Bowman and Emily Lima with four apiece.  Heather Martin and Kendell Santin each added three to round out the Carthage leaders.
 
Lima also led the Lady Reds in turnovers caused with six of Carthage's ten on the afternoon.
 
After opening with three games on the road, Carthage will finally come home to play in their home opener at Art Keller Field on Wednesday, March 8 as the Lady Reds host Concordia University-Wisconsin at 5:30 p.m.