The North Central College women's basketball team completed a sweep of its two-game Pacific road trip and improved to 6-0 for the first tme ever on Thursday, racing to a large early lead and cruising past the University of La Verne Leopards, 92-74.

The Cardinals led from wire to wire as they became the first team in the program's history to open a campaign with six straight wins, leading by as many as 24 points late in the game.

North Central harassed the Leopards (1-4) into 2 for 18 shooting in the game's first 18 minutes while building a lead that reached 17-4 following a three-pointer by Miranda Grizaffi with 12:14 on the first-half clock. La Verne whittled the lead down to 30-25 with 5:45 to play before halftime before a three-pointer from Caroline Heimerdinger and a layup byMaryssa Cladis pushed the Cardinals' advantage back into double digits.

The hosts scored six unanswered points in the final four minutes of the opening period to narrow the gap to 36-32, butJamie Cuny converted a layup with 13 seconds on the clock to give North Central a six-point lead at the break.Emily Zgoda opened the second half with five straight points to get the Cardinals started quickly once again and they were not threatened from then on. North Central's largest advantage of 81-57 came with 6:21 to play following an inside basket by Cuny.

Cuny led the Cardinals with 15 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots, while Grizaffi put up 12 points on 4 of 8 three-point shooting and Tess Godhardt totaled 10 points and six rebounds. 

La Verne's Emily Meyers turned in game highs of 27 points and 15 rebounds. The Leopards also got 17 points and 12 rebounds from Kayla Chism.

After returning to the Midwest, North Central returns to action on Monday as the Cardinals head to Deerfield to take on Trinity International University at the Meyer Sports Complex. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.