CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Sunday marked the opening day of Gulf South Conference play for the Lander women's lacrosse team – and it also served as a means for the Bearcats to get back to .500 by topping Lee U 16-7 at Ray Conn Sports Complex.
Lander (5-5, 1-0) used a dominating 7-1 second quarter to pull ahead 9-3.
The Bearcats added seven more goals in the second half to fully extinguish the Flames (4-8, 0-1). The 16 goals marked a new season-best for these Bearcats.
Kylie Fragala continued her recent hot stretch with her second five-goal, six-point output in the last four games.
Morgan Hill had her fourth hat-trick of the season and reclaimed the team lead with her 20th goal.
Ella Benson,
Elisha Lowes and
Emelia Tippett all scored twice – it was the first multi-goal game in Lowes' freshman campaign – and
Caroline Nicholson and
Kayla Smith were solo goal-scorers.
The Bearcats and Flames were tied at 2 following the first quarter. But the Blue and Gold decided better of having a stalemate and poured in seven straight goals for a commanding halftime lead.
Hill started the run and recorded her hat-trick over a 9 minute, 39 second stretch.
Fragala scored twice during the streak while
Sophie Warren collected two of her season-high four assists.
It was more of the same in a second half that saw Lander win the scoring battle 7-4 across the final two quarters.
Three of those goals were on the advantage as the game became testy with five cards issued in the fourth quarter alone.
Emersin Clamp picked up career win No. 1 in goal with six saves in 60 minutes.
A quartet of Bearcats each had four draw controls this afternoon: Benson,
Gabriella Eraso,
Kaia Morey and Tippett.
Lander will stay on the road next week for the final two times this year, beginning first with a rescheduled game versus current-No. 6 Embry Riddle on Thursday, March 26 at 6 p.m. LU will then head to undefeated and No. 1 ranked Flagler on Saturday at 4.
