KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College women's lacrosse team dropped their first College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin game of the season on Wednesday night at Art Keller Field, falling in an exciting matchup with the Cardinals of North Central College, 13-9.

The loss drops the Lady Reds to 8-4 on the season and to 1-1 in the CCIW, while the Cardinals improve to 2-0 in the league and to 11-1 overall.
 
A very evenly matched game on in the statistical columns, the Lady Reds jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening minutes of the game forcing the Cardinals into a timeout in the opening ten minutes. 
 
North Central responded with a 5-0 run over the next 16 minutes and put the Lady Reds in a three-goal whole that they would try to battle back from the rest of the game, eventually trailing at the half 6-3.
 
In the second half, Carthage and North Central exchanged goals until the Lady Reds were able to get to within two at 9-7 with 16:22 elapsed in half number two.  Unfortunately for the Lady Reds it would be the closest they would get the deficit down to, as the Cardinals closed the game on a 4-2 run to push the final margin back up to four at 13-9.
 
Rachel Mussell and Nicole Bowman led the Lady Reds in the defeat with two goals each, while Megan McNamara, Greigh Hoeft, Elena Herman, Jessie Gibson and Savanna Giesler each had one goal. 
 
It was the play of North Central's Camille Seghesio in goal that doomed the Lady Reds on the night however, as the Cardinals goal keeper, despite Carthage outshooting North Central 20-19 on goal, made 11 saves to earn the win.
 
The Lady Reds will look to bounce back with on Saturday with another huge CCIW showdown, as Carthage travels to Illinois Wesleyan University at 1:00 p.m.