Box Score The Peacock women's lacrosse team debuted on Friday, Feb. 21 in Quincy, Ill. Upper Iowa dropped an 18-7 decision to Quincy University in their first official competition. Both teams are in their first season of collegiate competition, but the match was the Hawks' second of the young season.
 
Scoring Breakdown… The Hawks jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead with three goals in the opening four minutes, but the Peacocks were able to score a pair of goals to slim the lead to one just minutes later. Quincy took control of the match over the final two-thirds of the first half outscoring Upper Iowa 10-1 on the way to a 13-3 halftime lead. The pace slowed in the second half after UIU scored three of the first four goals in the opening 14 minutes. After seeing their lead cut to eight, 14-6, the Hawks scored four of the final five goals to set the final score at 18-7.
 
Individual Scorers… For the Peacocks, Taryn Leonard, Paige Nicklaus and Kaylin Mertens each scored a pair of goals for UIU, while Imani Cornelius scored a goal. Mertens and Katie O'Brien notched an assist each in the match. For the Hawks, Danielle Robinson notched nine goals on just 10 shots, while Reece Nagao added six scores, Bianca Johnson found the net twice and Jenny Noeth posted one goal. Megan Ganniger recorded two assists, while Nagao and Kara Wilheim each had one assist.
 
Team Stat Comparisons… Quincy outshot Upper Iowa 33-22, but the teams each took 11 shots in the second half. The Hawks put 28 of their attempts on goal, while the Peacocks got 18 of their shots on frame. UIU forced 22 QU turnovers in the match, while only coughing it up 13 times on their own. Quincy got into their offense more cleanly out of the restarts thanks to a 14-7 advantage in draw controls including a 7-1 advantage in the second half.
 
Up Next… Upper Iowa will host Northern Michigan University for their home debut on Friday, Mar. 13 at 2 p.m. The Peacocks and Wilcats will get together in Harms-Eischeid Stadium for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener.