LIBERTY MO. - By a score of 15-6 the Spartans defeated the Cardinals of William Jewell on the road to start the 2024 season behind six goals from Lydia Cornett.

The Spartans started off the contest with Caroline Karr winning the opening faceoff, and on their second possession KJ Bonenberger found Delaney Pechnik in front of the crease to net MoBap's first goal of the year.

After a few back and forth possessions Lydia Cornett beat the Cardinals' goalie for her first goal of the day making it 2-0.

With little over a minute left in the first quarter Cornett was able to score another goal as the Spartans were a man up.

Prior to the end of the quarter William Jewell was able to get one goal back to make it 3-1 going into the second frame.

The second quarter was filled with goals coming from both teams as the two went back and forth.  MBU's goals came from Cornett, Karr, and Kiersten Lang.

Following a turnover in the offensive end by the Spartans, MBU goalie, Amelia Shaw came up with a huge fastbreak save to keep the score at 6-3 going into the break.

William Jewell struck first in the second half to cut MBU's lead to just two goals, but Cornett found the back of the net again followed by another goal from Karr just over a minute later.

The Cardinals got two more goals in the third quarter, but Cornett was able to get another as Missouri Baptist held a 9-6 lead going into the final 15 minutes of play.

The Spartans turned it up a bit in the fourth quarter scoring six unanswered goals to go on to a 15-6 victory of William Jewell.

All six of the Spartans' goals in the fourth quarter came from different scorers as Bonenberger, Cornett, Lang, Pechnik, Mackaylee Miller, and Natalie Patrick all scored.

Throughout the day Shaw made seven saves on the 13 shots she faced for a 53.8 save percentage.

Karr put six of her seven shots on goal leading to two goals as Pechnik and Lang also had two.

Cornett finished the game with six goals on the eight shots she took.

Missouri Baptist picked up 21 ground balls during the game and Patrick led the team with six of her own.

Next Saturday the Spartans will take on (8) Benedictine at 1:00 pm at Spartan Field for their home opener.