KANSAS CITY – Justine Anderson scored six goals, three in each half, and
Carson Dickey added a hat trick as the Colorado Mesa women's lacrosse program won its third consecutive game by beating Rockhurst 13-9 at Bourke Field in Kansas City, Missouri.
The victory improves the Mavericks to 3-2 this season and 12-0 all-time against Rockhurst. It completes a three-game road trip for the Mavericks before CMU's home opener on Sunday.
Colorado Mesa grinded out 4-2 advantages in both the first and fourth quarters to provide the four-goal margin of victory. The Mavericks led 5-2 early in the second quarter and pulled ahead late to win despite Rockhurst coming back to tie the score twice.
Shannon Murphy made eight saves against nine goals conceded to earn her third win of the year in the cage.
The Mavericks started off on the front foot with 11 shots in the opening quarter, scoring four goals and forcing Rockhurst goalie Mae Beins to make five of her 11 saves in the game's first 15 minutes.
Justine Anderson was on her game early, scoring twice in the first quarter and again early in the second quarter to secure a hat trick just 21 minutes into the contest. Anderson turned into a distributor, finding
Ali Bryant with 1:15 to play in the first half to put CMU up 6-4 entering halftime.
Rockhurst came out strong offensively in the third quarter, tying the score at both 6-6 and 7-7. Both times, Anderson broke the tie with a goal, finding the net off a pass from
Peyton Ivey and then tallying her fifth goal of the match unassisted to establish a new career-high.
After Rockhurst scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to cut CMU's lead to one at 9-8, the Mavericks locked things down, scoring four of the game's last five goals. A mini 3-0 run saw Bryant, Dickey and
Courtney Havel score in a four-minute span to put CMU up by four at 12-8 with 6:25 left to play. Anderson topped off her career evening with her sixth goal with 1:23 left in the game.
Behind Anderson's seven points, Dickey (three goals), Bryant (two goals, one assist),
Peyton Ivey and
Courtney Havel (one goal, two assists each) all finished with three points on the evening.
Kelsey Viger had four ground balls and four caused turnovers on the defensive end.
Bryant also finished with six draw controls, part of CMU's 16-10 team advantage in that category. The two teams finished even with 23 ground balls each. The Mavericks went 23-for-26 on clears while the Hawks were 23-for-28.
Colorado Mesa will play in Grand Junction at Community Hospital Unity Field for the first time this season against No. 12 UIndy this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. That game will be the first half of a doubleheader with the CMU men's lacrosse team, who takes on Westminster at 2 p.m.
