GREENWOOD - The Lander Women's Lacrosse team found themselves with a second quarter lead but a 8-1 run from Flagler over the second and third quarters would create a deficit that the Blue and Golf could not overcome as the 11th-ranked Saints pulled away to hand Lander a 21-16 loss on Saturday afternoon at Van Taylor Stadium.
The loss snapped Lander's four-game winning streak and dropped them to 10-6 on the year and 4-2 in Gulf South play to end the regular season. Meanwhile the Saints improved to 15-1 and completed a perfect 6-0 conference season, clinching the Gulf South regular season title outright and securing hosting rights for the GSC Tournament next weekend.
Brooke Kelly and Emmy Peterson led the offense with six points, Kelly scoring six goals and Peterson with a 3-3 goal to assist split.
Flagler got on the board within the first two minutes with two goals in just under 30 seconds but the Bearcats were able to respond with goals from Brooke Kelly and Alyssa Suchan to tie the game at two.
After Flagler scored again to take a 3-2 lead, Lander would close the quarter on a 5-2 run with goals from
Emmy Peterson,
Brooke Kelly,
Kasey Bronco, and two from
Mickey Burnett to give Lander a 7-5 lead.
Flagler looked like they would have a good chance to cut into the Lander lead as time ticked down in the first but Autumn Huskey would draw an offensive foul to keep the lead at two heading to the second.
Flagler would open the second quarter on a 3-0 run to take a 8-7 lead but Suchan would tie the game at eight before alternating goals, Lander's coming from Kelly, would move the score to 9-9.
However, Flagler would score the next two goals to take an 11-9 lead into halftime and then after Mickey Burnett cut the deficit to 11-10 less than a minute into the second half would score six straight goals to take a 17-10 lead.
Lander would not back down as they would score two straight of their own from Kelly and Peterson to cut the deficit to five heading to the last 15 minutes.
Brooke Kelly would add two more goals to start the fourth to get Lander within three but that would be as close as Lander would get as the Saints would score two straight to push the lead back out to five halfway through the quarter. Flagler would have another two goal response to an Alyssa Suchan goal to make it 21-15 before Emmy Peterson would close out the scoring with her third of the game to make it 21-16.
The Bearcats now turn their attention to the Gulf South Tournament where they will be the three-seed and will face the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers, the team that eliminated them last year, in a semifinal matchup on Friday at 3:00 PM in St. Augustine, Fla.
