Women drop crucial matchup with Carroll, move to fourth in conference –ama

Katie Nadel

Saturday, Jan. 27 the Lawrence women’s basketball team traveled to Waukesha to face the Pioneers of Carroll College.
Coming off a 61-47 loss to St. Norbert College at home on Jan. 23, the Vikes couldn’t pull out a win, losing 75-63 to Carroll.
Lawrence led at the half 31-30 and the score remained within a 10-point margin until just under six minutes left in regulation play when the Lady Pioneers took definitive hold of the game.
Freshman post player Caresse Reiland led the Vikings with 20 points. Junior Kelly Mulcahy added 10 points, and Senior Chelsie Barnard contributed seven points and four assists.
Though the Vikings shot 48 percent from the field — 61 percent in the first half — and dominated the boards — 33 rebounds to Carroll’s 22 — they allowed 19 turnovers.
Carroll also shot an impressive 55.3 percent from the field, aiding their 12-point win.
Junior guard Carrie Van Groll talked about the little things that would have helped the Vikes pull out a win.
“We could have pushed the ball up the court better and we should have exploited our depth. They don’t play a lot of people and that’s one of our team strengths. We have a lot of fresh bodies off the bench.”
Jenny Stoner also commented on the unfortunate loss. “It was a huge game that could have put us in second place,” said the junior guard.
The Vikings are now ranked fourth in the Midwest Conference Tournament race.
This weekend, the team travels to Illinois to face the Monmouth College Fighting Scots on Friday evening and the nationally ranked No. 25 Lake Forest College Foresters on Saturday afternoon.
“This weekend is huge,” Stoner continued. “We are only one game ahead of Beloit College [who is in fifth place] and we need to win. This weekend starts the second half of the season where we begin playing teams for the second time.”
“We’ve never won at Lake Forest,” the junior went on, “and we lost to Monmouth last year. We’re looking for big wins here on a crucial road trip to Illinois.