Lacrosse Set For SoCon Tournament

Thursday, May 2

Greenville, S.C.

5:00 P.M. ET

Central Michigan University

Mercer

Tickets

Coach Sara Tisdale and her Chippewas will open the SoCon Tournament on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Greenville, S.C.

Photo by: Ike Han

5/1/2019 4:14:00 PM | Lacrosse

Bracket Championship Central

Chippewas eye 2 wins in South Carolina to claim crown

By: Nick Vuylsteke, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The fourth-seeded Central Michigan lacrosse team travels to Greenville, S.C. for the Southern Conference Tournament. The Chippewas are scheduled to play top-seeded Mercer on Thursday, May 2 (5 p.m.).

The winner will take on Furman or Detroit Mercy on Saturday, May 4 (noon) in the title game. The Paladins and Titans meet in a semifinal game on Thursday night.

Mercer is the defending tournament champion.

WHERE THEY STAND
CMU is 7-10 and coming off a heartbreaking 10-9 loss to Detroit Mercy in its regular-season finale last weekend. Mercer is 8-9 and closed the regular season with a 23-2 win over Delaware State, clinching a share, with Detroit Mercy and Furman, of its first league title in program history.

LEADERS
Jocelyne Lemay and Natalie Karlen lead CMU in scoring with 57 points. Lemay, a senior, was named SoCon Offensive Player of the Year and to the All-SoCon First Team earlier this week; Karlen, who leads the Chippewas with 57 points, was named to the all-conference second team.

Chippewa goalkeeper Dominique Hamman has posted a 12.31 goals against average with a 4.70 save percentage in more than 521 minutes this season. She earned the SoCon Defensive Player of the Week Award on Monday, and on Tuesday was named to the all-conference second team.

SCOUTING
Mercer's Hailey Rhatigan ranks first in the SoCon with 54 goals and is second with 70 points. She was named on Tuesday to the All-SoCon First Team and earned the SoCon Freshman of the Year Award.

Mercer's Kelly Hagerty is tied for second in the league with 45 goals. Mercer leads the SoCon in goals per game (13.53).

REDEMPTION
CMU lost to Mercer, 19-12, on March 31. The stakes, obviously, are higher this time around with the winner advancing to the league title game and the loser going home.

"Looking back on the Mercer game it was one of the worst games we've played all year," CMU coach Sara Tisdale said. "We had 22 turnovers, it was insane, and we beat ourselves. Mercer is a great opponent and when I say that, I don't take anything away from them, but we definitely beat ourselves.

"We did not work hard enough on the offensive end, we settled for garbage looks, and we got outworked in the midfield. Looking back, there was a lot within our control that we didn't execute on."