St. Joseph, Minn. -- After winning seven consecutive games and clinching a second straight Midwest Lacrosse Conference championship, the College of Saint Benedict lacrosse team (8-3) will host Wisconsin-River Falls (11-5) on Monday, April 29 at 5 p.m.,  at the CSB Stadium Turf Field before beginning the MLC playoffs on Wednesday, May 1.

Saint Benedict set to host Hamline Wednesday in MLC Playoffs 1st Round
Saint Benedict clinched the Midwest Lacrosse Conference regular season title for a second straight year after a 14-13 road win against Lake Forest. The victory, which included hat tricks from Emma Nelson, Sami Hackley and Emma Halweg, was the second in three years against Lake Forest, which won the MLC two years ago.  

In the playoffs, CSB is seeded No. 1 and faces No. 4 Hamline Wednesday, May 1 at 5 p.m. The winner plays the Lake Forest/Cornell semifinal winner on Saturday, May 4 at 3 p.m. If CSB wins Wednesday, they will host the MLC title game for a second straight year.

Season Review
CSB's season opened with a 20-3 setback at NCAA DII Northern Michigan (5-1) on Feb. 24. In game two, CSB dropped a 15-7 decision to University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on March 9. A day later on March 10, defeated Milwaukee School of Engineering, 19-4 as Schrubbe scored nine points.  Despite seven goals from Sami Hackley, the Bennies dropped a 18-13 decision at UW Eau-Claire on March 13. In a 16-6 victory over Hamline University, Saint Benedict received a career-high five goals from sophomore Grace Fitzgibbons while first year Lizzie Schrubbe added six points (2 goals/ 4 assists). On March 30, CSB defeated Elmhurst University, 20-5, on the road. On Saturday, April 6. CSB defeated the University of Northwestern 18-7, as Sami Hackley scored seven goals for the Bennies. Saint Benedict most recently defeated Cornell College 9-6 on April 20 where Schrubbe had four points while Osland and Hackley tallied three points apiece. CSB also had a 15-13 win over Hamline as first-year Lizzie Schrubbe set school records with 11 assists and 12 points. Then, CSB had a come-from-behind 14-13 win at Lake Forest, which gave CSB their MLC title.

Program Records
Sami Hackley set the school record for goals in a game with nine against Augsburg on April 19, 2024 where she also recorded 12 shots on goal.  First-year Lizzie Schrubbe has set a pair of school game records including assists in a game with 11 and points in a game with 12 in the win over Hamline.   

About the Falcons
UW-River Falls is directed by Talia Hayes, who joined the program in November of 2021. She has directed her team to an 11-5 record overall and 5-1 in the WIAC. A year ago, UW-River Falls was 12-5 after going 15-2 in 2022. UW-River Falls is coming of a 20-1 loss to Colorado College after a 23-2 home win over Hamline. In 2024, UW-RF has a 262-to-164 goals edge and have averaged 35.9 shots per game. Samantha Hayek has 81 points with 40 goals and 41 assists  to lead the way. Brooke Gluback has 31 goals and 30 assists for 61 points. In goal, Abby Hammond is 4-0 with 32 saves and Kayden Hersback is 7-5 with 58 saves.

First-Year Players at Saint Ben's making an impact
Lizzie Schrubbe leads CSB in points with 66 points after recording a team-high 41 assists, which is the most in school history for a season. She also had 25 goals. Eight times, she has multi-goal games and twice she has double-digits in points including the school record 12 against Hamline on April 24. First-year Emma Nelson has 18 goals and six assists for 24 points. Four times this season, Nelson has recorded hat tricks (three goals) including against Lake Forest. She has six multi-goal games. Emma Halweg has 14 goals, and eight assists for 22 points. She has four multi-goal games including her career-first hat trick against Lake Forest on April 27. In that win, Halweg had a career-high three assists and six points. Breya Sawyer has three goals and three assists. In addition, Tess Cavanaugh has recorded six goals and an assist for seven points.   

Hackley has 79 career goals - 20 multi-goal games
Sophomore Sami Hackley, who was All-MLC a year ago,  set a school record with nine goals in a 23-3 victory against Augsburg. She has 42 goals and six assists on the season for 48 points. In her career, she now has 79 goals with 20 multi-goal games, including nine straight, while registering 10 games of four goals or more in her career.

Osland, Steinke and Fitzgibbons providing big contributions
Junior Emma Osland has 18 goals and six assists for 24 points. For her career, she has 39 goals and nine assists. She has seven multi-goal games in 2024 and 15 for her career with a high of five vs UW-Stout on April 15, 2023. Sophomore Grace Fitzgibbons has 18  goals in 10 games including a season-best five goals against Hamline University on March. 20. In her career, Fitzgibbons has totaled 49 goals and 22 assists. In her career, Fitzgibbons has 13 multi-goal games, including six this year. Five times she has registered four or more goals in a game, including a career-best six vs. Augsburg on April 29, 2023. Ella Steinke has totaled 13 goals and seven assists in 2024. For her career, Steinke has 53 points and 13 multi-goal games including a career-high four three times against Hamline on April 10, 2023,  Clarke (Iowa) on April 4, 2023 and Elmhurst University on April 6, 2024.  

Lewis claims back-to-back MLC Defensive player of the week honors
Chloe Lewis of the College of Saint Benedict lacrosse team, who helped the Bennies to a fifth win with a stellar performance in goal in a win over Cornell College, has been named the Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) Defensive Player of the Week for a second time, according to an announcement Monday, April 22 by the MLC as selected by the league's head coaches. Lewis, a sophomore goalie from Brooklyn Park, Minn., played all 60 minutes in net in CSB's 9-6 win on Saturday (April 22) over Cornell College (12-3, 2-2 MLC) on the road. A political science and pre-law major at CSB, Lewis made 15 saves and allowed six goals, including just three over the last three quarters, as she had a 71.4 save percentage.  In her career, she 10 double-digit saves with a high of 19 against UW-River Falls on March 20, 2023. She also had 15 vs Lake Forest on May 6, 2023. Named All-MLC a year ago, Lewis is the second player at CSB to earn MLC Weekly honors after sophomore Sami Hackley was honored on April 10, 2023. She is the only player in school history to win a pair of MLC honors. In her second season with Saint Benedict, she has allowed 8.78 goals per game (23 games), recorded 202 career saves, registered .517 career save percentage and accumulated a 16-5 career record, including 6-2-0 this year.

Head Coach Patrick Crandall - 2nd Season
Directed by head coach Patrick Crandall, the Bennies recorded a 7-0 record in the MWLC a year ago and finished 11-3 overall in his first year with the program. In that first season, Crandall was named the Midwest Lacrosse Conference Coach of the Year. With an 8-3  and 5-0 in the MLC, Crandall has led CSB to its second straight conference title. In 2023-24, Crandall's all-time mark at CSB sits at 19-6. CSB is now 12-0 in regular season MLC games. In his first season, the inaugural season of lacrosse at Saint Benedict, Crandall was named the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference "Coach of the Year." Six team members of the CSB team were named to the All-MWLC team while Sami Hackley was the conference "Rookie of the Year." Eight student-athletes were named to the Academic All-MWLC squad. Crandall was hired in late December 2021 to start the Bennie program, which began in Spring 2023.