GREENWOOD – For the second Saturday in a row, the No. 20 Lander women's lacrosse team battled a ranked opponent down to the wire – and this time came away with a 10-9 overtime win over previously undefeated No. 14/21 Slippery Rock at Van Taylor Stadium.
Izzy Olson got the chance to play hero, and she did just that with a free-position goal 1:09 into the six-minute, sudden-death overtime period.
Freshman
Caroline Nicholson also had a significant free-position goal of her own with 55 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at nine as the Bearcats (7-2) capitalized on a late Slippery Rock (5-1) penalty.
Seven Bearcats scored in all, headed by two goals each from
Ella Benson,
Mickey Burnett and Nicholson.
Kylie Fragala,
Brooke Kelly and
Sophie Warren all scored once. Olson added on a pair of assists to lead the team with three points.
Kara Krusbe turned in another stellar performance in net, stopping 9 of 18 shots for a .500 save percentage.
Kaia Morey likewise had another defensive gem with five caused turnovers, four ground balls and a pair of draw controls.
The Rock put the first tally on the board with 38 seconds to go in a defensively charged first quarter.
Warren found Benson with 9:23 left before halftime to get Lander in the score column and evened it at one in the process. Two more SRU goals made it 3-1 with just over six minutes remaining in the half.
Burnett narrowed the gap to 3-2 on the woman-advantage with 4:54 to play while Kelly later made it 4-3 before the end of the second off a feed from
Kayla Smith.
Both sides traded goals over the first nine minutes of the third quarter with Burnett and Olson's second connection of the day cutting The Rock's lead to 6-5. After an SRU score, Benson knifed through the defense to make it 7-6 heading into the fourth quarter.
Nicholson soon made it seven-all with a free-position strike 1:09 into that final quarter and Fragala tied things at eight with another successful free-position attempt about five minutes later. The Rock regained the lead with 4:28 left and set the stage for the aforementioned finish.
Lander is back in action this Tuesday (March 18) in a home game versus No. 19 Florida Tech. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.
(Rankings derived from USA Lacrosse Magazine and IWLCA Polls)
