Tusculum College built an early 4-0 lead and went on to defeat
Coker College 14-10 in South Atlantic Conference Women's lacrosse
action Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
Madison Malone finished with two goals and four assists to surpass
the 100-point mark for her career, Savannah Elliott scored four
goals and Cheyenne Bray and Kelsey Crow had three goals apiece for
the Pioneers (9-4, 4-3 SAC), who avenged a 12-10 loss to the Cobras
in last year's SAC Tournament.
Mackenzie Baker led the Cobras (6-6, 1-5 SAC) with four goals,
while Claudia Jenkins had three goals and an assist in the loss for
Coker, which trailed 9-4 at halftime before pulling within 13-10 in
the final four minutes.
Malone joined Crow as the only Tusculum players to score 100 points
in a Pioneer uniform when she scored her first goal of the game
with 5:59 left in the first half. Malone ended the day with career
totals of 36 goals and 66 assists for 102 points. Bray is on the
verge of joining Malone and Crow in the 100-point club as she had
three goals and an assist to increase her career total to 99
points.
Tusculum opened the scoring on a goal from Crow with 2:10 gone in
the first half, and built the lead to 4-0 on goals from Elliott,
Bray and Calyn Kelly. Jenkins scored Coker's first goal with 19:07
left in the first half, but Erin Sims scored for a 5-1 Pioneer lead
with 11:04 remaining. Elliott, Malone and Bray would score three
straight goals in a three-minute span to extend the Tusculum lead
to 8-2, and Crow scored with six seconds left to give the Pioneers
a 9-4 lead at the half.
A goal from Baker early in the second half brought the Cobras
within 9-5, but Elliott, Crow and Bray netted goals just over three
minutes apart to give Tusculum its largest lead of the day at 12-5
with 23:35 left. Baker scored twice in a row to spark a 5-1 Cobra
run, which was capped by a goal from Jenkins with 3:34 to play to
pull Coker within 13-10. However, Elliott tallied her fourth of the
day with 35 seconds remaining to close the scoring.
Both teams finished with 28 shots and 24 ground balls, with
Tusculum committing 26 turnovers to 22 by Coker and the Cobras
holding a 15-11 edge in draw controls.
Kelly finished the game with five draw controls to lead the
Pioneers, while Sims, Malone and Kelly each had two caused
turnovers. Malone led the Pioneers with four ground balls, with
three each by Kelly and Crow.
For Coker, Jenkins had a team-high six ground balls along with four
draw controls, while Lindsay Ordemann had four ground balls and
five draw controls. Baker finished with three ground balls and had
three draw controls for the Cobras.
Brooke Wagner played the entire first half along with the final 13
minutes in goal for the Pioneers and finished with eight saves,
while Kaele Lawless saw 17 minutes of action and had three saves.
For Coker, Cassie Dodge played the entire game in goal and was
credited with 10 saves.
The Pioneers are off until they host Lees-McRae in a non-conference
game on Tuesday, April 19 at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Field.
