ELMHURST, Ill. – The Elmhurst women's lacrosse team had its five-game win-streak halted in a 17-8 loss to North Central College.
 
Playing in its first-ever CCIW contest, the Bluejays fell into a quick 3-0 hole and could not recover. North Central's Kassie Whaling scored just 1:12 into the contest. Gina Fisher scored just two minutes later to put the Cardinals up by two goals. A Bianca Perri goal with 22:26 left staked the Cardinals to a quick 3-0 lead.
 
Elmhurst (5-5, 0-1 CCIW)  jumped on the scoreboard with 21:34 left in the half as Meghan Keyes netted her 16th goal of the season.
 

North Central (6-1, 2-0 CCIW) scored the next four goals, including two from free position to build a 7-1 lead. The Bluejays roared back as Nikki Togami scored the natural hat trick with three consecutive goals in a span of less than four minutes. The three-goal outburst from Togami pulled the Bluejays to within three at 7-4 with 6:38 remaining in the opening half.

The two squads traded goals to keep North Central's lead at three with 2:58 left, but the Cardinals struck twice in the final 1:34, including a goal by Fisher just before the end of the half to put North Central in front 10-5 at halftime.
 
The Cardinals scored the first three goals of the second half to take a 13-5 lead before Keyes tallied her third goal of the game with 19:21 left to pull Elmhurst to within seven. Back-to-back goals from the Cardinals gave North Central a nine-goal cushion with 17:27 remaining. Keyes fired home her fourth goal of the game just 37 seconds later and Hayley Zweig followed with her first goal of the season to bring Elmhurst to within seven at 15-8.

The Cardinals scored the final two goals of the contest to earn the 17-8 victory.
 
North Central outshot Elmhurst 28-24 and had an 18-10 edge in ground balls. Elmhurst won 16-of 11 draw controls, but the Cardinals converted on 4-of-5 shots from free position.
 
Keyes led Elmhurst in the loss with five points, totaling four goals and one assist. Togami added three goals and eight draw controls while Zweig added a goal. Phoebe LeRoy added an assist and four draw controls for Elmhurst.
 
Grace Knoebel took the loss in net for the Bluejays while recording six saves and four ground balls.
 
Fisher paced North Central's attack with five goals and one assist. Claire Norfleet also finished with six points, tallying three goals and three assists. Whaling added four goals while Perri totaled three goals and two assists.

Kat Schultz earned the win in goal, recording eight saves while allowing eight goals.
 
Elmhurst hosts the Illinois Institute of Technology on Wednesday, April 8.