GREENWOOD - The Lander Women's Lacrosse team fought from down six goals in the third quarter to cut the deficit to three with over nine minutes to go but couldn't close the gap further after that as the Mount Olive Trojans pulled away for a 16-11 win on Monday afternoon at Van Taylor Stadium.
The Bearcats dropped their second straight to fall to 5-4 while the Trojans won their third straight to improve to 4-4.
Emmy Peterson led the Bearcats' offense with six points, scoring five goals and assisting on another. Mickey Burnett and Kasey Bronco added two goals and an assist each as well.
Between the posts, Kara Krusbe stopped 14 shots to keep the Bearcats within striking range.
Mount Olive would strike quickly with two goals in just under a minute to take a quick 2-0 lead just over two minutes in. But Lander would strike back with two quick goals of their own from Kasey Bronco and Emmy Peterson to tie the game at two.
Lander would have three opportunities to take the lead off saves from Krusbe but would commit turnovers on each possession to stop any momentum. The Trojans would take advantage of those turnovers to go on a 5-0 scoring run to take a 7-2 lead.
However, Alyssa Suchan would score right before the halftime horn to cut the lead to 7-3 at the end of the first quarter.
Mount Olive would get the goal back less than a minute into the second quarter before a scoring drought of almost seven minutes for both teams.
The Trojans appeared to have scored another goal but it would be waived off for an illegal stick and Lander would capitalize on that turnover as
Brooke Kelly would score from the top of the arc to cut the lead back to 8-4. However, Mount Olive would strike quickly afterwards to restore the five goal lead.
Lander would have several opportunities but could not convert as time ticked down in the half but Kasey Bronco would be fouled right before the horn sounded and would convert the ensuing free position shot to make it 9-5 in favor of the visitors at halftime.
Mount Olive would score again to open the third quarter but Lander would respond with two goals from Peterson to cut the lead down to three. However, those would be the last goals that Lander would score in the period as turnovers would again bite the Bearcats as Mount Olive would go on a 3-0 scoring run to grab an 13-7 lead heading into the last 15 minutes of action.
The fourth quarter saw the Bearcats on the front foot to start as they would get two goals from Emmy Peterson and another from Mickey Burnett to cut the Mount Olive lead in half at 13-10.
Unfortunately, those would be the last goals Lander would score until after a 3-0 run within the span of a minute with under two minutes to go that put the game out of reach. Lander would force three saves between the goal from Peterson and the scoring run from Mount Olive but couldn't close the gap any further.
Mickey Burnett would add a goal with nine seconds left to close out the scoring.
The Bearcats open conference play this Friday as they travel to Montevallo for a Gulf South Conference matchup. That game is scheduled to start at 8:00 PM ET/7:00 PM CT.
