For the second straight season, the Eastern Michigan women’s lacrosse team saw its campaign end in the opening round of the Mid-American Conference tournament, with a 16-4 loss to the University of Akron Zips on Thursday, May 1, 2025.
Entering the match as regular season co-champions of the conference, boasting the MAC Attacker of the Year (Mackenzie Blackwell) and the MAC Goalkeeper of the year (Maddie Porter), the Eagles had high hopes of making the championship round as the No. 2 seed in the bracket.
Eastern Michigan had beat Akron at home in the Easter weekend matchup less than two weeks ago, taking victory that day in a back and forth, high-scoring affair.
This time, on a neutral field in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, the outcome for the green and white was vastly different.
The Zips began the game by scoring in the opening two minutes of the first quarter to take the lead and never relinquish it. While Emerson Henry was able to cut into the deficit for the Eagles with a goal courtesy of a Katheryn Wilson assist, Eastern Michigan was down 5-1 by the end of the period.
Wilson would try to return the Eagles to contention with a goal early in the second quarter, thanks to a Mackenzie Blackwell assist, to cut the deficit to three. However, a run of eight straight goals from Akron that spanned through halftime combined with a 30-minute weather delay at the top of the third quarter was enough to put the match out of reach.
Henry and Wilson were the only two goal scorers for the Eagles, each adding two goals to the stat sheet. Attacker Mackenzie Blackwell was held scoreless for the first time all season but still impacted the game through an assist and nine draw control wins.
With the win, Akron advances to the conference championship game to face Robert Morris University on Saturday afternoon.
Eastern Michigan’s season has officially come to a close. The team finished with an 8-9 record overall.
The eight wins for the Eagles mark the most for the team in a season thus far, also earning its first share of a conference title in program history. The team's debut campaign saw the Eagles finish with a 2-14 record in 2023. Since then, Eastern Michigan has gradually improved, with seven and eight wins respectively over the past two years.
