ST. LOUIS – With a chance at grabbing a stranglehold on the one seed in the conference postseason tournament on the line, No. 8 Spartan women's lacrosse were tripped up by No. 6 Benedictine College 16-3, suffering their first defeat in league play this season.
 
Missouri Baptist (8-3, 5-1 KCAC) were outplayed in the first half by Benedictine (10-1, 7-0 KCAC) and surrendered the first 10 goals of the game. The Spartans would erase the zero from its end of the box score with a scrappy Gianna D'Alto goal just before halftime, capitalizing on a man-up opportunity following a Raven yellow card.
 
A lull in scoring after the break was ended with another MBU goal from midfielder Chayleb Deves five minutes in, cutting the deficit to eight. The Ravens would score six more but with a final Spartan tally being added, courtesy of attacker Lydia Cornett, sandwiched in the middle. The Spartans improved on their past two results had with Benedictine, where they lost by an average of 18.5 goals, and were only outshot 2-to-1
 
Spartan netminder Amelia Shaw put in a valiant effort, logging 10 saves on 32 shots faced. It was Shaw's fifth game of the year with six saves or more.
 
Missouri Baptist will now close the regular season with its final week of action before the KCAC tournament. The Spartans will face Culver-Stockton at home on Thursday, April 7th at 4:00 pm before Senior Day takes place in a week's time against William Penn.