SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – That box score from Wednesday evening will tell a certain story. That report of facts and figures detailing what transpired in the fourth NAIA Women's Lacrosse Championship quarterfinal of the day will tell how the No. 7-seed lost to the No. 2-seed. That tally of points, ground balls, turnovers, and saves will tell how the winning team, despite an even matchup all things considered, played to a sizeable lead and did not give it up. That account of numbers recorded from a suburb of Detroit will tell of a lot of things. Heart won't be one of them.
The seventh-ranked and Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) champion Missouri Baptist women's lacrosse team were defeated by the No. 2 Blue Devils of Lawrence Tech University (LTU) on Wednesday evening, 13-9. That box score will tell how it came to be, but those in attendance at LTU's own home digs of Blue Devils Stadium likely saw the Spartans fall behind in the second quarter and fight back tremendously after halftime, but to no avail. MBU's comeback attempt was stifled, but not before MoBap announced itself as a team that belonged on that national stage.
The Spartans did struggle in restraining the Blue Devil offense in the first half, but was never that far out of it via goals coming from
Caroline Karr, who drew first blood (2:36),
Lydia Cornett, who answered LTU's back-to-back tallies to tie it 2-2 (7:33), and the following three first half goals thanks to an opening half hat trick courtesy of
Jordan Haeusser (12:30, 18:20, 25:48) to stay in the game.
MoBap looked equal to the task of taking on No. 2 in the country until a small stretch of four unanswered goals was stopped by Haeusser's third before the intermission, making it 10-5. The flip from the first half to the second saw the Spartans cut the Blue Devils shot tally from the first (22) by 50 percent in the second (11). MBU went with a two-goalie approach, as first half netminder
Amelia Shaw and replacement
Alyssa Graebner both logged five saves each. Both showed flashes in front of the cage, but the sheer number of attempts by LTU was enough to get points on the board and hang on in the second half.
The leadership of Haeusser, whose three goals set the pace for MBU, combined with a three-goal run and defensive return to the gameplan that saw Lawrence Tech achieve only three more goals made for a starkly contrasted second 30 minutes of action. The Spartans fought back to within three after
Chayleb Deves (33:39),
Mack Miller (39:51), and Karr (49:54) put up a run to make the score 11-8, but the rally was met with two more from the Blue Devils to effectively seal the result. Miller added a second on the game with three minutes left, but that was all she wrote.
The heart came through, more than ever, after the final horn sounded. MBU's players, with their season coming to an end, and particularly the underclassmen, shared hugs, shed tears, and expressed all sorts of gratitude in the postgame to the crop of outgoing seniors which had given their all to get to the national tournament and made it a reality with this season's team.
MBU had 12 caused turnovers to LTU's 11, won 12 draw controls to LTU's 14, had 20 ground balls to LTU's 21, and put up 26 shots to LTU's 33, the only key separator from what that box score showed. Despite fighting back and winning the second half, the Spartans were unseated from their place among the final eight as the lone newcomer to the tournament.
"I thought we fought really really well," head coach
Max Ruhl said. "Our conversation at the half was 'We need to get back to our game plan'…because in our second quarter, we neglected to stick to our game plan defensively, and that was the separator.
"Kind of hard to believe that the 2023 season is over," Ruhl said. "They [the outgoing seniors] have been the foundation for all of our success, so it's a really proud moment, but it's really bittersweet… Just us getting here, and playing as well as we did, despite the outcome, has lit a fire in some of our girls to push that much harder [going forward]."
Missouri Baptist will turn in a 2023 season with a record of 11-5, wins against No. 1 in the nation, an undefeated conference record, a 2023 KCAC Conference regular season and tournament championship, and numerous accolades across the field for its players.
"I'm not worried about this team and their lack of desire," Ruhl said. "I think we leave this tournament and this season hungry to get back, and I'm excited about that."
