Saturday was as sweet as Culver's custard. The No. 15 Colorado College women's lacrosse team sealed its second straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title with a 21-9 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Tigers tied the program record for wins in a season (18) and extended their WIAC winning streak to 19 straight games.
CC won 18 games for the first time in program history in 2019, finishing 18-2 with a program winning percentage of 90 percent.
On Saturday against the Blugolds, sophomore
Sofia Mancino scored a career-high five goals on only five shots on goal.
Charlotte Iler and
Peyton Murphy each scored four goals. It's Iler's sixth and Muphy's third four-goal game this season.
Grace Bean racked up her fourth hat trick of the season and finished with an assist, a ground ball, a nd five shots on goal.
Eight Tigers scored in total, including
Oliv Janerico, who finished with two, and
Ella Roe,
Meilani Molina, and
Tobin Lonergan, who scored once.
Iler scored first 37 seconds after the initial draw control to give CC an early lead. However, Eau Claire responded two minutes later to tie it up at 1-1.
The Tigers countered with a five-goal run, including four unassisted goals, to go up 6-1 with 3:47 remaining. The Blugolds ended the run to cut the lead down to 6-2, but Janerico and Bean found the back of the net a minute apart to close out the first, and CC led 8-2 by the start of the second quarter.
Eau Claire scored first out of the half; consequently, Iler scored consecutive goals, bumping the lead back up to 10-3 with 7:58 remaining.
CC scored twice more to take a 12-4 lead into the halftime break. The Tigers outshot the Blugolds 28-13 in the first half.
The third quarter consisted of back-and-forth scoring. CC outscored Eau Claire 5-4 and kept the lead at 10 after goals from Iler, Murphy, Bean, Janerico, and Mancino.
Murphy earned her hat trick in the fourth quarter, scoring two more goals, as CC added four more to cruise to the eventual 21-9 victory.
The Tigers improved to 18-3 and await a potential at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will air on Monday, May 5, at 8:30 a.m. MT on NCAA.com.
