Lacrosse Teams Fall at Home to St. Ambrose

Marshall, Mo., (Apr. 8, 2023)- The Missouri Valley College men's and women's lacrosse teams welcomed in St. Ambrose (Iowa) for a Heart of America Athletic Conference game Saturday afternoon inside Volney C. Ashford Stadium. The Vikings women's team fell behind early, and fell by a final score of 25-5, while the men's team lost to SAU, 14-7.

The game started with Sophomore Goalkeeper Jake Lipscomb (Boiling Springs, S.C.) needing to make two saves in the opening moments of the contest, but St. Ambrose scored the first goal of the game over two minutes after the start. SAU added another goal just right after the faceoff to make it a 2-0 score. Both teams traded possession over the next stretch of play, but the Fighting Bees had another goal. The Vikings answered back with Freshman Attacker Dre Mcclain (Fort Myers, Fla.) and Senior Attacker Cole Eyckelhoff (High River, Alberta) scoring one goal each in less than a minute near the 2-minute mark. SAU tacked on three more goals late, and held a 6-2 lead going into the second quarter.

Scoring in the second quarter started with a quick goal from the Fighting Bees after the restart. The Vikings continued to keep up the pressure, and Eyckelhoff set up Mcclain with a goal near the seven-minute mark. Eyckelhoff added his second goal of the contest just over one minute later to cut the deficit to 7-4. Missouri Valley went into halftime trailing, 7-4.

The first goal of the third quarter came from SAU, but the Vikings came through with a goal less than a minute later. Missouri Valley came close to tying the score with Sophomore Junior Keuwo and Eyckelhoff recording one goal each in less than a one minute span. St. Ambrose tacked on another goal at the 7-minute mark, and pulled away from there, dominating through the rest of the quarter scoring three more goals to hold a 12-7 advantage. The fourth quarter featured two goals from the Fighting Bees, and Missouri Valley created some chances but they were not able to score, and eventually fell by a final score of 14-7.

Eyckelhoff scored 4 goals, and added one assist, to lead the team. Mcclain added 2 goals, along with five ground balls, and Keuwo had 1 goal. Lipscomb made 19 saves in goal. Missouri Valley forced SAU into 15 turnovers, and won 8 total faceoffs.

Missouri Valley drops to 2-10 overall, while St. Ambrose improves to 6-6 in the season.

The Vikings were led by Junior Midfielder Alexis Lark (Alma, Mo.) who scored 3 goals for the team, had 8 shots on goal, along with 7 draw controls. Senior Attacker Patricia Seller (Zepernick, Germany) added one goal, and one assist for the Vikings, and finished with 6 shots, including 4 shots on goal. Junior Midfielder  Jada Fepuleai (Tafuna, American Samoa) scored one goal, while Junior Goalkeeper Lauren Bates (Kearney, Mo.) made 8 saves in goal.

Missouri Valley lost to St. Ambrose by a final score of 25-5. The Vikings forced 11 turnovers, won 15 draw controls, and came up with 8 ground balls.

The loss drops Missouri Valley to 0-10 overall, while St. Ambrose improves to 6-6 in the season.

Up next, the women's and men's lacrosse teams will host Clarke University (Iowa) for a conference doubleheader on Senior Day, Saturday. The women's game starts at 2 p.m., followed by the men's game at 5 p.m.

Women's Box Score - Click Here

Men's Box Score - Click Here

About Missouri Valley College

Known for its dynamic, richly diverse, and friendly educational environment, Missouri Valley College offers many opportunities to grow in mind, body, and spirit. Grounded in the liberal arts, undergraduate studies empower students to master interdisciplinary skills needed to succeed in a knowledge-based global society. MVC offers over 30 academic programs, study abroad program, extracurricular activities, and a wide variety of sports. The most popular majors include education and business, criminal justice and exercise science. Above all, Valley is committed to student success. For more information, call (660) 831-4000 or visit www.moval.edu.