GREENWOOD - The Lander Women's Lacrosse team saw themselves up 3-2 after the first quarter but were outscored 6-1 in the second quarter which allowed the Mount Olive Trojans to put the Bearcats in a hole they couldn't climb out of as the visitors emerged with an 18-10 win on a rainy Tuesday afternoon at Van Taylor Stadium/
Lander drops to 5-5 while Mount Olive improves to 8-2.
Izzy Olson led all scorers with four goals but Mount Olive had three players score three goals a piece.
Autumn Huskey, who was named the Gulf South Defensive Player of the Week shortly before game time, grabbed 11 draw controls, two shy of her program record set last season against Lee where she grabbed 13.
The early part of the game was a defensive struggle as both goalies made saves and both defensive units forced turnovers keeping the game scoreless for almost five minutes. Then, with just about 10:30 left in the quarter, Mickey Burnett broke the ice to give Lander the lead.
The game went back to being controlled by the defenses for almost six minutes before Olson made it 2-0 off the assist from Alyssa Suchan.
Mount Olive then responded with two goals in under two minutes to tie the game. However, Suchan assisted on another goal, finding Brooke Kelly to give the Blue and Gold a 3-2 lead after the first quarter.
The Trojans tied the game two and a half minutes into the second but Olson netted her second of the game just under a minute later to give the hosts the lead right back at 4-3.
Unfortunately, that was the last goal Lander scored in the quarter and it wound up being the last time the Bearcats held the lead for the rest of the game.
From there, Mount Olive rattled off five straight goals to end the half leading 8-4 and stretched it to a five-goal lead within a minute of the second half starting.
Olson stopped the bleeding with 12:18 left to make it 9-5 and Burnett made it 9-6 a couple of minutes later.Â
The Trojans took advantage of a yellow card by the Bearcats and made it 10-6 but Lander responded with back-to-back goals by Kelly and
Kylie Fragala to bring the deficit down to two, but that was as close as Lander would get the rest of the way.
Mount Olive countered with three straight goals to take a 13-8 lead with just over 13 minutes to play in the fourth quarter. Burnett got another goal back but the Trojans reclaimed the five-goal lead shortly after.
Fragala looked like she got another goal for the Bearcats but was called for a dangerous shot yellow card, negating the goal. The Trojans then came right down the field and scored on the man-up opportunity off a free-position shot.
Kayla Smith had a nifty underhand shot for a goal but it was also ruled as a dangerous shot, meaning back-to-back goals had been waived off. The Bearcats were able to kill off the card but the Trojans scored two more goals in less than a minute to ice the game at 17-9.
Olson got her fourth goal with just over 90 seconds left but the celebration was short-lived as Mount Olive capped the scoring 50 seconds later to give the game its final scoreline.
The Lander Women's Lacrosse team returns to action on Saturday as they take on the Flagler Saints for a 1:00 PM first draw.
