ST. LOUIS - Missouri Baptist University Women's Lacrosse is set to play the fourth-ranked University of the Cumberlands at home on Saturday (March 22), in a dedication game to an organization called Morgan's Message. Both teams are entering the highly anticipated competition with recent wins under their belts.

Cumberlands most recently played (RV) Ottawa University on Wednesday (March 19), beating them 19-6. Earlier in the week, they were upset by Benedictine College 19-10. With this win, Benedictine took Cumberlands' spot on the NAIA Top Ten Coaches' Poll, sending the Patriots from two to four.

They are currently 9-2 on the season, with their most impressive win being against (5) Lawrence Tech University.

Missouri Baptist and Cumberlands faced each other last in the 2024 season on the Patriots' home field. The Spartans outscored the Patriots in the first and fourth quarters, but the Cumberlands draw team proved to be a powerful force. They outscored the Spartans by more in the second and third periods, resulting in a final score of 18-13 in Cumberlands' favor.

Having the home field advantage this year, the eighth-ranked Spartans hope to flip the script.

Morgan's Message:

Missouri Baptist and Cumberlands are also dedicating tomorrow's game to the life and legacy of Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke University women's lacrosse player who died tragically in 2019 after battling mental health challenges.

Morgan's Message was created by her family and former teammates with the mission to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health, normalize the conversations about mental health, and to ensure mental health is treated equally to physical health for all student-athletes.

The teams will take nine seconds of silence to honor Rodgers's memory before the start of the contest, standing in solidarity with their fellow student-athletes.

Read more about Morgan's Message on https://www.morgansmessage.org/.