RIVER FALLS, Wis. - Today the Calvin women's basketball team kicked off its new season when it took on the Falcons of UW-River Falls. After falling behind early, the Knights struggled to recover and went on to record their first loss of the season.
 
In the first quarter, redshirt junior RyAnn Rohrer (Ludington, Mich./Ludington) picked up the first basket off the season for the Knights before tacking on another a few possessions later. However, those were the only points Calvin could muster in the opening quarter of play as the Falcons had built a 12-4 lead.
 
Calvin seemed to find some rhythm in the second quarter with Katelyn LaRue (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) and Lydia Sall (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) each recording their first points of the season as the Knights worked to cut down the Falcons lead. Hannah Sall (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) found freshman Izzy Wotlinski (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) on a back-door cut to chip the Calvin deficit to just eight points. However, River Falls continued to find buckets on the other end of the floor as the Knights headed into halftime once again trailing by twelve.
 
The Knights tried to get things rolling again in the third quarter as Hannah Sall and Rohrer continued to make life hard on the Falcons defense down low. Senior duo Sami DeKupier (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) and Emma Witte (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) got in on the scoring action as the Knights chipped the River Falls lead down to nine.
 
A bucket from Hannah Sall to open the fourth quarter cut the lead down to seven but that would prove to be as close as the Knights would get. The Falcons went on to outscore Calvin 19-12 in the fourth and eventually walked away with the 59-43 victory.
 
Hannah Sall finished the game with a double-double as she recorded ten points and eleven rebounds. Rohrer chipped in eight points and six rebounds while LaRue finished with seven points. 
 
COACHES COMMENTS: "Not the way we wanted to start, but credit to River Falls," said head coach Mark Christner. "We were on our heels for most of that game. Short window to get ready for a quality UW Lacrosse team."
 
UP NEXT: The Knights will continue their opening weekend of play tomorrow when they take on Wisconsin-La Crosse at 1 PM (CT) in the UW-River Falls Tournament.