by Mackenzie McMahon

The Hope College women's lacrosse team is in Texas for a two game series, with a single game against Southwestern and another match with Dallas as their opponent. In their first game of the week, the Flying Dutch started a grand comeback, but ran out of game clock to finish their climb, with Southwestern grabbing the win, 11-9. 

Senior Madison Micho, pictured right, started things off at the 11:53 mark in the first quarter, and Southwestern would then put in three unanswered goals before Micho would put in her second of the game with just under seven minutes to play in the first. Micho's second goal was assisted by senior Sophie Ackerman (Granger, Indiana / Penn). Southwestern tallied their fourth goal to go up 4-2 with three quarters remaining. 

Senior Madison McCreery (Grand Rapids, Michigan / East Grand Rapids HS) found her first goal shortly after back-to-back goals from Southwestern which opened up the scoring in the second quarter. Sophomore Elena Salazar (Howell, Michigan / Hartland)with the assist on the McCreery goal. Southwestern would go on a scoring frenzy following Hope's third goal of the game, grabbing four more goals, all unanswered to end the second quarter and headed to halftime with a 10-3 lead. 

Salazar came out firing in the third quarter and grabbed her own back-to-back goals at the 9:17 mark and the 8:07 mark to make it 10-5. Freshman Juli Kirkpatrick (Granger, Indiana / Penn) tallied the assist on Salazar's first goal of the game. McCreery would then find the back of the net with five minutes to go in the third quarter after a pass from Micho. Sixteen seconds later Kirkpatrick put in a quick two goals, one unassisted and the second getting help from Ackerman. 

Southwestern found their final goal at the 6:10 mark in the fourth quarter before Molly Frederickson (Alto, Michigan / Lowell) put in the ninth goal for Hope College. Sophomore Maddie Yakes (Rockford, Michigan / Rockford) was in net for the Flying Dutch, making 10 saves and facing 21 shots. The orange and blue picked up 26 total ground balls, and sent off 40 total shots. 

Salazar finished the night with 8 shots, 6 shots on goal and three ground balls, Kirkpatrick picked up a single ground ball, had 6 shots and 4 shots on goal and caused two turnovers. Micho ended their first game in Texas with 7 shots and 6 shots on goal, and snagged a team-high 6 ground balls. Sophomore Kristen Szost (Jenison, Michigan / Jenison International Academy) had 6 shots, 4 shots on goal, one ground ball and had two caused turnovers. 

Hope College women's lacrosse looks toward their second game of the week with opponent Dallas on Friday, March 25 at 5:00 p.m.