WOMEN'S LACROSSE SET TO OPEN SEASON AT COLORADO MESA
The Westminster women's lacrosse team will begin the 2017 season on Saturday when they travel to Grand Junction, Colo. to face Colorado Mesa in a non-conference game. The action takes place at Walker Field and will begin at 1 p.m.
 
ABOUT THE GRIFFINS
Westminster will start their second season as a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference on Saturday. They went 2-9 overall last season and placed sixth in the RMAC with a 2-5 record in conference games.
 
This year's team returns 13 players from that team, including its top seven leading scorers. Katie Adams led the team with 38 points after being second with 29 goals and nine assists. Kira Heiden is back after scoring a team-high 31 goals last season. Madison Ingman will return after leading the Griffins with 12 assists.
 
Heiden was also the team's leader with 41 draw controls while Adams has a team-best 34 ground balls. Daisy Mele returns to a Griffin defense after notching 20 caused turnovers as a freshman.
 
The Griffins return both goalies that saw time in cage last season. Taylor Hekking started all 11 games and had a .323 save percentage and 16.47 goals-against-average. Caitlyn Laffey appeared in seven games with a 9.16 GAA and .486 save percentage.
 
ADAMS STREAKING
Katie Adams will start the new season having scored a goal in 22 consecutive games. That streak ranks as the third-longest in team history with the record of 32 consecutive games with a goal in reach as the new season begins. Adams scored 29 goals last season and led the team with 38 points. She was sixth in the RMAC with an average of 3.45 points per game while leading the conference by taking 6.64 shots per game.
 
HEIDEN CLIMBING
Kira Heiden begins her senior season with 100 career goals to rank sixth in team history. She ranks in the school's top-10 in eight statistical categories to begin the year. Along with being sixth in goals, she holds that rankings in assists (29), points (129), shots (173), and shots on goal (147). Heiden led the Griffins with 31 goals last season and she was fourth in the RMAC by scoring 2.82 goals per game. Her 5.18 shots per game was fourth in the RMAC and she was third at 3.73 draw controls per game.
 
INGMAN SHARING
Madison Ingman led the Griffins with 12 assists last season as a freshman. She recorded at least one assists in eight of the team's 11 games with multiple assists in a game five times. Her 1.09 assists per game placed 10th in the conference. Ingman also added 18 goals for 30 points to place third on the team in each category. She scored three goals in a game five times and tallied at least one point in 10 outings.
 
MELE PRODUCES
Daisy Mele gave the Griffins production at both ends of the field last season. She led the team with 20 caused turnovers while multiple CTs in six games. Mele was third in the conference by getting 1.82 caused turnovers per game. She also scored 10 goals and had three assists for 13 points. Mele recorded multiple goals in two games and scored in seven of the year's final eight contests.
 
HEKKING STOPPING
Taylor Hekking started all 11 games in cage for the Griffins last season. She finished her freshman season with 70 saves and was fifth in the RMAC at 6.36 saves per game. Hekking had a .323 save percentage and 16.47 goals-against-average over her 535 minutes of action. She made at least five saves during eight games with a pair of 10-plus save outings.
 
OPPONENT INFO: COLORADO MESA
• Colorado Mesa will also begin their 2017 season on Saturday.
• The Mavericks were 11-4 last season and placed third in the RMAC at 5-2.
• Jessica Cook returns after scoring 59 goals and 69 points last season.
• CMU is 4-0 against the Griffins in NCAA play and 6-1 all-time.
• They swept the Griffins last season, winning 20-11 in Grand Junction.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
The Griffins will head to Minnesota next weekend to play a pair of games at the Concordia Dome. They face Concordia, St. Paul on February 24 at 6 p.m. MST on the CSP home field. They will then play a neutral site game against Findlay on February 25 at 11:30 a.m. MST.