Groovy script to verify response data is in ascending order

I have a SOAP Response for which need to use Groovy script to assert if the date parameter in the row xml child are coming in ascending order.

xml response

<tree>
 <row>
  <id>123<id>
  <date>20220501</date>
 </row>
 <row>
  <id>242<id>
  <date>20220502</date>
 </row>
 <row>
  <id>125<id>
  <date>20220502</date>
 </row>
</tree>

Please help me with the groovy scripting approach/ script for the same, I am a beginner here.

simple sax parsing solution with date (as int) comparison:

import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory
import javax.xml.streams.*
import org.xml.sax.*
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler

def xml = '''
<tree>
 <row>
  <id>123</id>
  <date>20220501</date>
 </row>
 <row>
  <id>242</id>
  <date>20220502</date>
 </row>
 <row>
  <id>125</id>
  <date>20220502</date>
 </row>
</tree>
'''

 
 class MyHandler extends DefaultHandler {
     
    int lastDate = -1
    def parsingDate = false
    def ordered = true
 
 
    void startElement(String namespace, String localname, String qname, Attributes atts){
        // enters into <date> tag
        parsingDate = (qname == 'date')
    }
    
    void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length){
        if (parsingDate ){
            // get date as int
            def date = new String(ch).substring(start,start+length) as int
            // comparison
            ordered &= (date >= lastDate )
            lastDate = date
            // else may be throw an exception
        }
    }

   
    void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName) {
        // exit from date tag
        parsingDate = false
    }

}
 
def handler = new MyHandler()
def factory  = SAXParserFactory.newInstance()
def reader = factory.newSAXParser().XMLReader
reader.contentHandler = handler
 
reader.parse(new InputSource(new ByteArrayInputStream(xml.bytes)))

println handler.ordered