Box Score

MONMOUTH, Ill. – Junior Bailey Aasen (Park HS, Cottage Grove, Minn.) helped spearhead a second half surge that allowed Augustana to break open a close contest and defeat Monmouth 21-9 in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Wednesday, March 14 in Monmouth, Illinois. Aasen recorded the fourth highest single game point total in school history when she scored eight goals and had three assists for 11 total points. She is the fifth Viking to notch 11 points in a single game.
 
Aasen scored four first half goals and assisted on another but Augustana was leading just 8-7 after Monmouth's Kara-Jade Gordon scored with 3:01 left before intermission. With just seven seconds left before halftime, however, the Vikings Christina McCabe (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.) scored off an assist by Carla Bennett (Marian Catholic HS, South Holland, Ill.). Not only did that give Head Coach C.J. Durham's team a two goal cushion but it also sparked a flood of goals by the visitors.
 
Augustana scored the first 10 goals of the second half and when McCabe found the net with an assist by Bennett at the 8:34 mark the lead had grown to 19-7 and the running clock was in place.
 
Freshman Hannah Tiesenga (Lincoln Park HS, Chicago, Ill.) opened the second half scoring with an unassisted goal at 29:32. Aasen then scored the next two, also unassisted, to make it 12-7 with 25:35 left. McCabe connected with Bennett once again getting an assist at 24:26 and sophomore Lauren Amella (Whitney Young HS, Chicago, Ill.) tallied a goal at 23:16 off an assist by Aasen to make it 14-7. Bennett, Aasen and McCabe scored the next three for the Vikings and McCabe's goal at 16:45 put the margin at 17-7 and started the running clock. Aasen and McCabe nailed the final two goals in the run.
 
Aasen wasn't the only goal scorer for the Blue & Gold as McCabe had six goals and one assist while Bennett scored five goals and had four assists. The Vikings scored 21 goals on just 36 shots in the game. The two teams were even in ground balls (14-14) and Augustana had the edge in draw controls (18-14). Aasen won six draw controls and Bennett five.
 
Senior Annalia Fowler (York HS, Elmhurst, Ill.) was in goal for nearly 52 minutes and had seven saves and led the team in ground balls with four. She got the win to move to 5-1 on the season.
 
Kara-Jade Gordon led Monmouth in scoring with five goals and one assist.
 
Augustana is currently 5-1 on the year and the win over the Fighting Scots was the fourth straight. Monmouth fell to 1-3 on the year. The Vikings will be in action again on Saturday, March 17 with a 1:00 p.m. game at Albion in Albion, Michigan and on Sunday, March 18 they will play Trine at 11:00 a.m. in Angola, Indiana.