KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College women's lacrosse team overcame a two-goal halftime deficit to win their third straight game on Wednesday in their Art Keller Field home opener, defeating Concordia University Wisconsin, 11-9.
 
The win pushes the Lady Reds to 3-1 overall on the season, while the Falcons drop their first match of the season to fall to 0-1.

"We are getting used to fighting back from these deficits that we are getting ourselves into," said head coach Lauren Hein after the win.  "We knew we had to change some minor things and came out and pressured their goalkeeper very well.  Our ability to fluster her and take the lead gave us a chance to stall down the stretch with 11 minutes left, which was a bold move, but our girls did a great job knowing that if we gave Concordia any opportunities they would probably capitalize.  So very proud of the girls today to get a good non-conference win and now we have 10 days off to look ahead to DePauw."
 
Maddie Griffin led the Lady Reds with three goals in the win followed by Rachel Mussell, Nicole Bowman and Bryanna Barrera with two apiece.  Maddie Palmerson and Mackenzie Day rounded out the scoring with one goal each.
 
Carthage fell behind early, allowing a goal in the first 27 seconds of the game to go down 1-0 and the Lady Reds found themselves down two as CUW added a second before three minutes had dissolved off the clock.
 
Carthage answered with a pair of quick goals of their own by Barrera and Day to tie the game at 2-2 just before the 23:00 mark of the first half.
 
Concordia then rattled off three straight goals then to regain a 5-2 lead, which the Lady Reds would have to battle back from much of the rest of the half.  Carthage and CUW exchanged goals down the stretch with the Lady Reds holding a 4-3 advantage over the final 5:18 to cut the deficit to 8-6 at the half, with Bowman scoring in the final 13 seconds of the half.
 
For the half, Carthage was edged in most statistical categories including shots, 15-11, shots on goal, 12-9, and ground balls, 19-10.
 
Things turned around for the Lady Reds in the second half after CUW opened the scoring to once again take a three-goal lead, 9-6, with 26:59 remaining in the game. 
 
Carthage closed the game dominating the rest of the way and using a 5-0 run to come from behind and win their home debut.  During the run, Maddie Griffin scored two goals including the eventual game winner at the 16:11 mark.  Bowman and Day added a goal each down the stretch and Palmerson's third goal of the season offered the Lady Reds enough insurance to be able to run the clock out over the final 11 minutes, with CUW barley touching the ball.
 
Maggie Allen recovered from a tough first half to allow just one goal over the final 30 minutes, while making four second half saves, to earn her third win of the season.
 
Carthage flipped the script on the Falcons in the second half as the Lady Reds outshot them 14-5 and 11-5 on target. 
 
For Concordia, Lauren Paquin and Emily Kuhlman each tallied a hat trick in the loss.
 
Carthage will return to action at Art Keller Field on Sunday, March 19^th at 1:00 p.m. against DePauw University in their final game before heading to Oregon for three games during the Lady Reds' spring break.