CHICAGO, Ill. (March 9, 2024) – Playing with the exact-same national rankings as both teams had during their regular-season matchup in Granville last season, the No. 24 Denison University women's lacrosse team again fell to the No. 17-ranked University of Chicago, this time dropping a final score of 16-14 on Saturday in Chicago.

Despite their result during the regular season last year, it was the Big Red who defeated the Maroons 10-9 in triple overtime during the second round of the NCAA Tournament. On that day, current senior Merrill Rollhaus scored both of Denison's fourth-quarter goals to help force overtime, and then she netted the game-winning goal with just eight seconds left in the third overtime period.

This time around, Chicago started the scoring with a goal by its all-time leading scorer and the reigning CCIW Offensive Student-Athlete of the Year, Lulu Hardy, on its first possession.

After a caused turnover by Bridget Sheehy, her fifth caused turnover of the season so far, Sheehy stayed on offense for the next Big Red possession and was able to just beat the shot clock with two seconds left to tie the game at 1-1 five minutes in.

Then after Denison won its fourth straight draw control to start the game, Sheehy drove past three Chicago defenders to score her second goal of the first quarter and even the score at 2-2 with under a minute and a half on the clock.

With a man-up advantage early in the second quarter, a nice pass from Sheehy over the top of the Chicago defense found Jane Lukens in front of the goal to make it 3-2 Big Red, but the Maroons answered with their second man-up goal of the game just over a minute later to make it 3-3.

Denison led 4-3 just over two minutes into the second quarter when Rollhaus slipped a bounce shot in past the Chicago goalkeeper, Rachel Keefe. Keefe, the reigning CCIW Defensive Student-Athlete of the Year, had eight saves in the first quarter to help keep the Big Red from ever opening up a two-goal lead, and then a mistake behind the goal by the Big Red's starting goalkeeper, Audrey Hughes, left the goal open for Chicago to again tie the game at 4-4. It was the fourth goal in the first three and a half minutes of the second quarter.

It was a very physical start to the game as after a dangerous shot penalty on Chicago, Denison took advantage of its second man-up situation of the game and saw a nice slip pass from Josie Lucchesi find Mary Martinson to make it 5-4 Big Red with 7:31 left before halftime.

Chicago, however, continued to have an answer for every Denison goal in the second quarter and tied it just 33 seconds later on a goal by freshman Peyton McGuire, who then just 25 seconds after that, scored again to put the Maroons back in front.

McGuire continued to step up for the Maroons and completed the second-quarter hat trick to give Chicago the first two-goal lead for either team (7-5) in the final two minutes before halftime.

Chicago then kept its foot on the gas pedal and with under 20 seconds on the shot clock and under 30 seconds left on the game clock, scored again to make it 8-5 and cap a 4-0 run to close out the first half with a bang.

After outshooting Chicago 21-12 in the first half, Denison got the scoring started in the second half as Martinson slipped one into the top right corner just past the stick of Keefe on the first possession of the third quarter.

McGuire, however, had her coming out party as a freshman as she scored three more goals in the third period to help Chicago outscore the Big Red 5-2 and take a 13-8 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

After taking a more deliberate approach offensively in the first half, Denison had to show off its quick strike capability in the fourth quarter.

Lucchesi scored less than 10 seconds into the fourth quarter as Denison scored in the opening minute of the second, third and fourth quarters.

Then Down 14-9, Lukens put together a nice spin move to beat her defender and score quickly as both of Denison's first-two goals of the fourth quarter came within 15 seconds of the previous draw control.

With a 7-on-5 advantage on offense, Martinson scored her third goal of the game to make it 14-11 with just over 10 minutes left to play, but the cards continued to fly against both teams as Chicago fired back and scored itself on a two-man advantage with under nine minutes to go.

Daniel won the ensuing draw control and Sheehy used her first-step quickness to score just 29 seconds later to make it 15-12 and keep Denison's hopes alive, but after yet another draw control by Daniel, a save by Keefe on the next possession kept the Big Red from getting to within two goals of Maroons.

Ultimately, it would take until near the final minute of the game for Denison to cut the deficit to two goals as Rollhaus finished off the scoring.

Keefe added three saves to her total in the fourth quarter and finished with 13 saves for the game.

In the end, the Big Red outshot the Maroons 38-31, led 19-15 in draw controls, and forced Chicago into committing 18 turnovers.

Sheehy finished with a career-high five goals and six points and added three caused turnovers and two groundballs as well while Lucchesi added two goals and three assists.

On defensive, Grace Schlossberg finished with three caused turnovers and three groundballs while Daniel added two caused turnovers and had three groundballs as well.

Daniel also led the way with eight draw controls while Rollhaus had seven and Martinson had three.

Denison falls to 1-3 with the loss while Chicago, the three-time defending College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Champion, improves to 2-0. Chicago outscored its opponents 331 to 118 last year and took 35.9 shots per game. The Maroons' average of 17.42 goals per game was sixth in all of D-III while their scoring defense was third in the nation at 6.21.

The Big Red will now turn their attention to their Spring Break trip to Clearwater, Florida, with the action beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12, against No. 6 nationally-ranked Franklin and Marshall College.