Lacrosse Falls to No. 15 Michigan in NCAA Tournament, 13-6

EVANSTON, Ill.—Led by four goals by Jill Smith and three goals from Erin Garvey, No. 15 Michigan claimed a 13-6 NCAA Tournament First Round women's lacrosse win over Central Michigan Friday afternoon at Northwestern's Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium in Evanston.

Central Michigan concludes its season with a 10-9 overall record. Michigan improves to 12-7 and advances to Sunday's NCAA Second Round game against host, No. 1 ranked and No. 1 national seed Northwestern.

With the contest, Central Michigan made its second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance (2022 and 2023). The back-to-back Mid-American Conference champion Chippewas are one of 21 teams nationally to advance to the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons.

Central Michigan showed great fight as it battled back with five second half goals, including four in the fourth quarter. The Chippewas were led by two goals apiece from Sadie Hinkle and Skye Deprado, while Audrey Whiteside and Sandy Edwards both scored one goal. Goalkeeper Alexa Martel made a total of eight saves on the day and allowed just three goals in the second half.

Central Michigan coach Emilia Ward, in her first season at CMU after serving as an assistant coach at Michigan, was proud of her team's effort in the second half.

"The fight we showed in the second half was incredible," Ward said. "I thought our defense played well all four quarters against a really good offensive team in Michigan. I think our offense finally found a rhythm and gained confidence where we were having long-standing possessions. Michigan is a top-5 defense in the country, so we knew goals were going to be hard to come by. In the first half, we were doing some things to make those goals a little harder to come by."

"The fight that this group showed just shows where this program has come as they're going to play a full 60 minutes and force you to play a full 60 minutes against them. That was our goal coming in, regardless of what the score was. We wanted to show that and show it on a national stage."

The Chippewas did lead the game for a minute in the first quarter when Whiteside finished off an unassisted goal, her 100^th career goal, in the game's third minute as the Chippewas grabbed an early 1-0 lead.

But Michigan responded with seven consecutive goals to take a 7-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Michigan answered with back-to-back goals by Jane Fetterolf and Smith to take a 2-1 advantage. Smith scored again to make it 3-1 and Kaley Thompson added an unassisted goal. Smith scored her third goal off an assist from Fetterolf, Erin Garvey made it 6-1 with a score and Lily Montemarano closed the first quarter with a goal off a pass from Kaley Thompson.

The Wolverines added three more goals in the second quarter for a 10-1 halftime advantage.

"Michigan is a great team, they're super highly skilled, they're fast, they're physical and got off to a good start in the draw circle," Ward said. "We started to level that up a little bit, then they got hot again late. That's a big thing in this game, you need possession. With our offense not putting the ball in the back of the net allowed them to expand their lead a bit. In the second half, we started to win some of those draw controls, giving us those opportunities instead of having to make a stop."

Michigan led 12-1 before Central Michigan's Sandy Edwards ended the drought with an unassisted goal at the 1:28 mark of the third quarter. Sadie Hinkle cut the deficit to 12-3 with an unassisted goal at the 13:23 mark of the fourth quarter.

The Chippewas scored the last three goals of the game. Skye Deprado got on the board in the fourth quarter with a goal at 7:36 mark on a free position shot. Her 19^th goal of the season cut the margin to 13-4.Hinkle added her second score at the 3:09 mark and Deprado notched her second goal with 2:30 to play.

Michigan outshot Central Michigan 29-15, registered 21 shots on goal to the Chippewas' 13, and won 14 draw controls to CMU's nine.

The matchup marked the second of the 2023 season as the two teams met earlier this year in Ann Arbor, a close 7-6 Michigan win.

Regardless of the outcome, Ward was happy with the season.

"It's really hard to repeat," Ward said. "With this group and the adversity we faced, not only early in the season with injuries, but late in the season to lose the caliber of players that we did, for them to rally and go through the conference and for them to go out and compete against an opponent who was not going to take them lightly because they faced us earlier on the year, it shows where this program is going, the leadership that our upperclassmen have shown, but also our sophomores and juniors on the field today were really impacful for us. That bodes well for our future."

—CMU—

Team Stats

Skye DePrado

Sadie Hinkle

Sandy Edwards

Audrey Whiteside

Players Mentioned

Skye DePrado

Sandy Edwards

Sadie Hinkle

Alexa Martel

Audrey Whiteside

Players Mentioned

Skye DePrado

Sandy Edwards

Sadie Hinkle

Alexa Martel

Audrey Whiteside