'ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - In just their third full season as a program, the Lander Women's Lacrosse team will play for a conference title as the Bearcats defeated the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers, 15-13, in the Gulf South Conference semifinals on the campus of Flagler College.
The win, Lander's first ever win over the Chargers, improved the Blue and Gold's record to 11-6, setting a new program record for wins in a season and set up a date with the Flagler Saints on Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile the Chargers end their season at 9-9, missing out on their chance at a fourth straight Gulf South title.
Brooke Kelly, Emmy Peterson, and Mickey Burnett each recorded a hat trick for the Bearcats while Alyssa Suchan and Kasey Bronco each added a pair of goals. Izzy Olson and Ella Benson also cracked the scoresheet for Lander.
The Chargers were led by Isadora Springer with four goals and Chloe Wood with three.
The game started out the worst possible way for the Bearcats as off a save from Taryn Samons, an errant back pass from Autumn Huskey would find the back of the cage for an own goal less than a minute into the game.
However, Lander would respond 30 seconds later as Kasey Bronco would find Alyssa Suchan to break the ice for the Bearcats and tie the game at one.
Huntsville would get two goals to get their lead to 3-1 as Lander would be held off the board for six minutes of game time before Brooke Kelly would score her first of the game off the assist from Emmy Peterson to cut the lead in half at 3-2.
However, the Chargers would again respond with two goals with another six minute scoring drought from Lander before
Mickey Burnett would slot home a goal to make it 5-3 heading into the second quarter.
UAH would stretch the lead out to 7-3 with two quick goals to open the quarter before Lander fired off a 5-0 run with goals from five different Bearcats in Alyssa Suchan, Emmy Peterson, Ella Benson, Brooke Kelly, and Kasey Bronco to flip the scoreline in the Blue and Gold's favor at 8-7.
The Chargers would tie the game within a minute, taking advantage of a man-up opportunity but a Grace Walters draw control on the ensuing restart would lead to a Peterson goal to give Lander the lead back. The teams would swap goals to end the quarter with Bronco scoring with just over a minute left to give the Bearcats a 10-9 lead heading to halftime.
After the half, UAH would tie the game at ten before several turnovers and good defensive play by both teams would result in almost ten minutes of no scoring before Mickey Burnett would score twice to give Lander a 12-10 lead going into the last quarter of action.
The Bearcats would not relinquish the lead after the pair of Burnett goals as Peterson would open the scoring in the quarter to make it 13-10 before the Chargers would get a goal back. This time Lander would have a response of their own as unassisted goals from Kelly and Olson to give Lander a 15-11 lead. UAH would get two goals to cut into the lead but it was too little too late.
The Bearcats now look ahead to the Gulf South title game and a rematch with the Flagler Saints. The Saints denied the Bearcats an opportunity to clinch a share of the Gulf South regular season title last Saturday and defeated the Lee Flames 20-14 in the first semifinal of the day. The championship match is set for a noon first draw on Sunday in St. Augustine.
