GREENWOOD - After suffering back to back defeats at the hands of ranked teams, the Lander Women's Lacrosse team got back to winning ways on Sunday morning as they dominated the Montevallo Falcons, 20-7, in both teams Gulf South opener.
Lander improves to 3-3 on the season and starts GSC play 1-0 while Montevallo falls to 2-6 and 0-1 to start conference play.
Alyssa Suchan (Leduc, Alberta, Canada) and Emmy Peterson (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) led all players with eight points, both scoring four goals and assisting on four others. Mickey Burnett (Baltimore, Md.) had a four goal performance as well while Ella Benson (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) got a first half hat trick on three shots. Izzy Olson (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) got two goals in addition to leading the team in caused turnovers with three and also grabbed four draw controls. Brooke Kelly (Bel Air, Md.), Kasey Bronco (Mount Pleasant, S.C.), and Amelia McCauley (Clover, S.C.) all cracked the scoresheet as well.
Also on the defensive end,
Autumn Huskey (Clover, S.C.) grabbed five draw controls while picking up three ground balls and forcing two turnovers.
Calloway Umstead (Winston-Salem, N.C.) led the team in ground balls with four.
Lander got out to a 3-0 lead in less than 90 seconds off goals from Benson and Peterson before the Falcons got on the board just under the 11 minute mark.
Lander responded with three more goals, including one while down a man, to stretch the lead out to 6-1.
After Montevallo scored to make it 6-2 with just over five and a half left, Lander's offense really started clicking as the Bearcats fired off a 7-0 run that stretched all the way until Montevallo scored with 1:33 left. Burnett scored just before the halftime horn to give Lander an 11-goal lead heading into the intermission, 14-3.
The Lander defense played a crucial part in that run as they forced five Montevallo turnovers in the second quarter and 20 on the game.
Montevallo outscored the Bearcats in the third quarter, 3-2. It was a quarter that didn't see Lander score until 2:24 left when Burnett found Bronco to make it 15-6. Izzy Olson got the margin back up to ten with a goal just over a minute later to make it 16-6 heading into the last quarter.
Suchan opened the quarter with her third goal but Montevallo responded shortly after to make it 17-7. However, that was the last shot the Falcons got as the Lander defense held the Falcons to only one successful clear in the final quarter and forced seven turnovers to keep the visitors off the scoreboard the rest of the way to close out a dominating win.
The Bearcats are back at home on Saturday, March 16th as they host Slippery Rock for an 11:00 AM first draw.
