Lady Flames Wrap Up Historic Season With Loss To Young Harris In GSC Semis
Photo by Reily Anderson courtesy of Lee Athletic Communications.
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The Lee University women's lacrosse team fell to Young Harris, 15-13, on Wednesday afternoon in the Gulf South Conference tournament semifinals from the Multi-Sport Complex.
Lee (9-4) looked to be in control early after winning the first draw control and Brittney White found the back of the net just 36 seconds in.
Just minutes later Shayna Ryan threw a goal in from a free position shot to double the score and Giselle Gonzalez stretched the lead to three with 24:23 to go in the opening half.
Young Harris (5-7) finally got on the scoreboard with a Leigh Anne Turner goal from an Anna Luckie pass.
Dariana Blanton put one past the keeper for her first goal with just over 18 minutes to go and the two teams traded goals until White scored her second of the contest with 5:29 left in the period.
Ryan scored her 25th goal of the season right out of a timeout to put her at the century mark for points in her career with 3:22 remaining and to give the Lady Flames a, 7-3, advantage into the halftime break.
The second half proved to be the half of the Mountain Lions though as Young Harris outscored the Lady Flames, 12-6, in the final 30 minutes.
Young Harris scored the first three goals in the half to trim the lead to one not even six minutes in.
White extended the lead back to two with her third goal of the match with 23:25 to go.
The Mountain Lions answered in a big way though going on a, 9-3, run for the next 20 minutes to take a 15-11 lead.
Lee looked to make a comeback as Avery Schenk put one in the goal with 3:59 to go and Shayna Ryan trimmed the lead to two with 2:46 left to give the Lady Flames a chance.
But Young Harris grabbed the next draw control and after trading turnovers, for the rest of the game, Lee eventually ran out of time to end their historic season.
"They (Young Harris) is a scrappy team. They have speed and they're talented. We knew they would be a tough draw and they played tough and they played well," head coach Derrel Martin said. He continued, "We just didn't maintain possession of the ball. We don't have a lot of speed, and legs, and extra players to take care of a fast break game and we ran a lot of fast breaks today and that's not really our game, but we couldn't slow it down."
Aubrie Valvo led the Mountain Lions with six goals and Luckie led all players with seven assists. Valvo also paced the guests with five draw controls and Kelsey Dover had six ground balls to go with three draw controls.
Maddy Meyers started the match in goal for Young Harris making 10 saves on 23 shots on goal in the contest.
White paced Lee with five goals and Ryan completed the hat trick with three goals to round out the hat trick scorers and put her over the 100 point mark in her career. Blanton and Gonzalez put in two goals each and Schenk had her lone goal in the second half.
White led the Lady Flames with six ground balls while Shannon Galloway recorded four of her own. White also added five draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers while Emily Osborne recorded four draw controls of her own.
Kaleigh Bernard got the start and went the complete match, making nine saves on 24 shots faced.
"Two seasons ago we were 1-7 in the conference, this season we were 4-0, and as a team and a culture we've come along away," concluded Martin.
