Dramatic And Critical Victory For Lacrosse Over Robert Morris

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Kelly Hoyt scored three fourth-quarter goals including the dramatic game winner with 15 seconds remaining on Saturday as the Central Michigan lacrosse team posted a 12-11 Mid-American Conference victory over Robert Morris at the CMU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex.

The win kept the Chippewas in the hunt for the MAC regular season title as they improved to 9-7, 7-2 league. Robert Morris is 8-7, 8-1. The loss was the first in MAC play for the Colonials, who joined the league in 2021 and had won 18 consecutive conference games before Saturday.

"Wins like that rank right up there amongst the best in program history," said CMU coach Sara Tisdale, whose team notched its first victory over the Colonials in five tries.

Saturday's game featured the MAC's top two teams, both of which came to play with high energy. The back-and-forth game featured seven lead changes and six ties. CMU trailed, 11-8, with just over 10 minutes to play.

Hoyt scored three goals to spearhead a 4-0 game-closing surge to give the Chippewas the victory.

Hoyt's first goal, which was unassisted, came with 10:07 remaining to pull CMU to 11-9; a Brennan Paddy goal ignited the crowd and drew the Chippewas within one, 11-10, with 6:05 left; and then Hoyt scored at the 1:45 mark off an Audrey Whiteside assist to tie it.

Hoyt's game winner came on a free-position shot with the Chippewas a woman-up after an RMU player was assessed a yellow card. It set off a frenzy among the crowd.

"It's exciting," Tisdale said. "We lost a game Monday (against Youngstown State) that was a pretty big defeat, so I'm very proud of (the team) and the work we put in this week. We put in a lot of hours to fix the things we needed to fix to get ready for today."

Maggie Diebold scored three goals to raise her season total to a team-best 53, which is second in program history to the 64 that Natalie Karlen scored last season. Brennan Paddy and Audrey Whiteside both notched two goals.

Central Michigan outshot Robert Morris, 28-19, earned six more free position shots than the Colonials, and caused eight more turnovers than RMU.

Alexa Martel made three saves in goal during the first three quarters of the game for CMU. Erin Owens took over in goal for the fourth quarter and made four saves.

"It was such a game of swings," Tisdale said. "It was back and forth so much. For us to be able to fight back and not give up, it shows the grit this team is really developing."

Central Michigan sits in second place in the MAC standings behind Robert Morris. CMU would need to win its season finale next weekend at Akron, while Robert Morris would need to lose to Youngstown State in its regular season finale in order for the Chippewas to earn a title share.

The regular season champion hosts the league tournament May 5-7.

Dramatic And Critical Victory For Lacrosse Over Robert Morris

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Team Stats

Kelly Hoyt

Maggie Diebold

Audrey Whiteside

Brennan Paddy

Players Mentioned

Maggie Diebold

Kelly Hoyt

Natalie Karlen

Alexa Martel

Erin Owens

Brennan Paddy

Audrey Whiteside

Players Mentioned

Maggie Diebold

Kelly Hoyt

Natalie Karlen

Alexa Martel

Erin Owens

Brennan Paddy

Audrey Whiteside