NCAA Tournament Preview: Women's Lacrosse Ready for Debut

5/8/2021 7:00:00 AM | By: Luke Potosky, Staff Writer

Carly Ross and a veteran Blue Streaks squad will be making their first NCAA appearance.

CHICAGO, Ill. -- On Saturday, May 1, John Carroll University Women's Lacrosse made history by defeating Mount Union 20-10 in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship. The win snapped a streak of six straight conference championships for the Purple Raiders.

Two days later, the NCAA announced the bracket for the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Tournament. The Blue Streaks received an automatic bid as OAC Champions.

John Carroll Women's Lacrosse (16-1) will travel to the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois to take on the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (9-2) on Saturday, May 8 at 8 p.m. EST in the second round of the tournament.

"We are over the moon about this opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament," said Head Coach Rachel Dell after the game was announced. "We have worked very hard to play with some of the best teams in the country. We are ready to prove our national ranking in the top 20 or higher this year."

Saturday's game against the Falcons of UW-River Falls will mark John Carroll's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament during their 7-year tenure as a program.

The Blue & Gold did not compete against any other NCAA Tournament qualifying schools, but they played a historic 17-game stretch against teams in the OAC during the 2021 season. At the end of the regular season, the Blue Streaks found themselves ranked as the No. 3 team in the Great Lakes Region; behind Denison and Washington & Jefferson.

John Carroll is currently on a 3-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents 63-19. They outscored their opponents in the regular season 348-99; winning games by an average score of 20.5-5.8.

Statistically speaking, the Blue Streaks rank 1st in the NCAA in shots on goal per game (32.44), 2nd in free-position percentage (63.1%), 2nd in shots per game (42.06), 3rd in draw controls per game (18.31), 5th in scoring offense (20.50), 6th in average win margin (14.94), and 8th in points per game (28.38).

The Blue & Gold will be led by the likes of the NCAA's leading goal and point scorer Colleen Grombala (95 goals, 27 assists), Jenna Ginsberg (33 goals, 18 assists), Alex Heishman (32 goals, 14 assists), and Kendall Gessner (35 goals, five assists).

As for the other side of this matchup, per the NCAA, UW-River Falls qualified for the tournament through Pool B; a separate pool of teams that consists of independent institutions or institutions that are members of conferences that do not meet the requirements for automatic qualification.

The Falcons, who are part of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, finished their 2021 season with a 9-2 record. Their women's lacrosse program began in 2019, and this is also their first NCAA tournament appearance.

Their two losses in the 2021 season were to Illinois Wesleyan 12-8 and Carroll (WI) 21-9. Both of those schools qualified for the tournament via Pool C; a separate pool of teams that consists of institutions in conferences with an automatic qualification that are not the conference champion or independents and members of non-qualifying conferences.

One of UW-River Falls's nine wins came against Hamline University (from St. Paul, Minnesota) 17-5. Hamline also qualified for the tournament as winners of the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference. The Falcons ended their regular season as the #4 team in the West Region, ranked behind the two teams they lost to as well as the host of this second round matchup; the University of Chicago.

UW-River Falls won the last four games of their regular season, outscoring their opponents 88-15. They outscored opponents in the regular season 190-84; winning games by an average score of 17.3-7.6.

The Falcons will be led by the likes of Emily Herdline (41 goals, 15 assists), Emma Kohlbeck (30 goals, seven assists), Gina Jablonski (27 goals, eight assists), and Josie Johnson (17 goals, 14 assists).

The winner of UW-River Falls and John Carroll will face the winner of Chicago and Hamline in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on May 15 at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

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