Warriors Fall Behind Early, Fall to St. Ambrose on the Road

DAVENPORT, Iowa – Midland University continued Heart of America Conference (HOA) play on Sunday, traveling to Davenport, Iowa, to face St. Ambrose University. The Warriors fell behind early and were unable to close the gap as the Fighting Bees maintained their lead before pulling away in the third quarter for a 23-5 victory.

St. Ambrose opened the scoring three minutes into the game and quickly added three more goals in the next two minutes to take an early 4-0 lead. The Bees extended their advantage with another goal at the six-minute mark before Midland got on the board. Madi Marusiak connected with Chloe Harrison, who found the back of the net to cut the deficit to 5-1. St. Ambrose responded with another goal before the end of the first quarter to take a 6-1 lead.

The Bees carried their momentum into the second quarter, scoring just over 90 seconds in and adding another goal 30 seconds later. The Warriors fought to stay in the game as Kadence Rose received a pass from Ryland Nelson and fired a shot into the net to make it 8-2. The teams then traded goals, with St. Ambrose extending its lead to 9-2 before Midland's Lauren Chick made it 9-3. Marusiak added another tally for the Warriors with four minutes left in the half, but St. Ambrose broke the back-and-forth trend with two late goals to take a 12-4 lead into halftime.

St. Ambrose struck again just 53 seconds into the third quarter, but Marusiak answered with her second goal of the game to make it 13-5. However, the Bees took control from there, scoring six unanswered goals to push their lead to 19-5 heading into the fourth.

The Bees closed out the game with four more goals in the final quarter while holding the Warriors scoreless to secure the 23-5 victory.

Midland struggled to generate offense, recording 17 total shots with 13 on target, while St. Ambrose fired 32 shots with 26 on goal. Shelby Tracy made three saves in 60 minutes of action for the Warriors.

Midland (0-3, 0-2 HOA) continues its road trip on Wednesday with a matchup against No. 5-ranked Benedictine (8-0, 1-0 HOA) in Atchison, Kansas. The Warriors and Ravens previously met in a nonconference game on Feb. 26 in Fremont. The early rematch will begin at 4 p.m. at Legacy Field.