ST. JOSEPH, Minn.—The top-seeded College of Saint Benedict lacrosse team (8-4) will host No. 4 Hamline (9-8) as the Midwest Lacrosse Conference Playoffs open Wednesday, May 1 at 5:00 p.m. at the CSB Stadium Turf Athletic Field.

Saint Benedict wins MLC for second straight
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. 
 
The winner of the CSB/Hamline semifinal game will face 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. Most recently, Saint Benedict fell in the regular season finale to nonconference opponent UW-River Falls, 16-11.

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 Pipers
Hamline, which is directed by second-year Adam Dobois, defeated Northwestern (St. Paul) 13-10, and most recently beat University of Wisconsin Stout 12-to-9 in Menomonie, Wis. HU has  been outscored 182-180 and lead in ground balls, 355-to-336. The Pipers lead 219-to-181 in draw controls vs opponents. Maitland Luksan leads the team with 32 goals while Courtney Parker has 30 goals and five assists.
 
First-Year Players at Saint Ben's making an impact
Lizzie Schrubbe leads CSB in points with 70 points after recording a team-high 42 assists, which is the most in school history for a season. She also had 28 goals. Nine 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 20 goals and six assists for 26 points. Four times this season, Nelson has recorded hat tricks (three goals) including against Lake Forest. She has seven multi-goal games. Emma Halweg has 16 goals, and nine assists for 25 points. She has five 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.   

Schrubbe ranked in NCAA DIII in assists and points nationally
Schrubbe is ranked in the top-40 of NCAA DIII in the statistical categories of points per game (6.0/ 7^th), total assists (42/34^th) and assist per game (3.37/7^th )
 
Hackley has 80 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 43 goals and six assists on the season for 49 points. In her career, she now has 80 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 19 goals and six assists for 25 points. For her career, she has 40 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 12 games including a season-best five goals against Hamline University on March. 20. In her career, Fitzgibbons has totaled 49 goals and 24 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 15 goals and ten assists in 2024. For her career, Steinke has 59 points and 14 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.  

Hackey receives MLC Offensive player of the week honors
Sophomore Sami Hackley, who scored nine goals to lead the College of Saint Benedict (8-3, 5-0 MLC) to a pair of wins this week, has been named the Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) Offense Player of the Week for a second time, according to an announcement today by the MLC as selected by the league's head coaches. Hackley, who was All-MLC a year ago, scored nine total goals in wins over Hamline (15-13) and Lake Forest (14-13). She added five ground balls, four caused turnovers and one draw control. Against other MLC players, she leads the league in goals (26) and is third in points (27). With three goals, she now has 42 goals and 48 points this season. Earlier this season, Hackley set a school record with nine goals in a 23-3 victory against Augsburg.  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.

Lewis has earned MLC Defensive Player of the Week honors twice
Chloe Lewis has been one of the league's top goalies and twice has been named MLC Defensive Player of the Week. Lewis, a sophomore goalie from Brooklyn Park, Minn., played all 60 minutes in net in CSB's 9-6 win on April 22 over Cornell College 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 11 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 and 18 against UW-River Falls on April 29. 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. In her second season with Saint Benedict, she has allowed 9.38 goals per game (26 games), recorded 256 career saves, registered .512 career save percentage and accumulated a 18-6 career record, including 8-3-0 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 8-4 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 19-7. 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.