HICKORY, N.C. --- Lenoir-Rhyne scored eight consecutive goals in a span of 16 minutes across the first and second half in a 20-9 victory over Tusculum in South Atlantic Conference women's lacrosse action Sunday afternoon at Moretz Stadium.
Cathleen Gaffney finished with five goals and four assists, Kaley Harris added four goals and an assist and Ashley MacIntyre scored three times for the Bears (3-6, 1-0 SAC), who led 9-7 with seven minutes left in the first half before scoring the final five goals of the first half and the first three of the second half.
Juliette Cusano and Emily Gleason scored three goals apiece for the Pioneers (2-7, 0-1 SAC), while Savannah Elliott had a goal and two assists and Rachel Holmes and Madison Malone added a goal and an assist apiece. Tusculum was outshot 30-21 by Lenoir-Rhyne, which was perfect on all 20 of its clear attempts in the match.
Harris opened the scoring just over a minute into the first half, but Gleason responded just 34 seconds later to tie the score at 1-1. Gaffney scored a pair of goals to give the Bears a 3-1 lead with 24:40 left in the first half, but Holmes and Cusano responded for the Pioneers to knot the score at 3-3 with 22:03 left in the half. The Bears would score six of the next seven goals, broken up only by a Gleason goal with 16:15 left, as Lenoir-Rhyne took a 9-4 lead on Harris' third of the game with 13:04 remaining in the half.
Tusculum responded with two goals from Cusano and one from Gleason to cut the margin to 9-7 with 11:11 left in the first half, but Lenoir-Rhyne would scored five goals from five different players in the final 6:54 of the half to take a 14-7 lead into intermission.
The run continued in the second half for Lenoir-Rhyne as the Bears scored three straight goals for a 17-7 lead with 21:08 remaining. Elliott broke Tusculum's drought at 26 minutes, 16 seconds by scoring with 14:55 remaining, and Malone had the final goal for the Pioneers with 8:07 left.
Malone led the Pioneers with seven draw controls, while Holmes had four draw controls along with two ground balls. For the Bears, Rachel Elmore had seven draw controls and MacIntyre added five, while Sousa had two ground balls and two caused turnovers to go along with two goals and three assists.
Brooke Wagner started and played more than 49 minutes in goal for the Pioneers, making five saves, with Kaele Lawless adding one save in the final 10 minutes, 38 seconds. For the Bears, Inez Flueck had five saves in 45:05 of playing time, followed by Paula Cortezano (one save) and Cristi Rowland in the final 15 minutes.
Tusculum will play its fifth consecutive road game on Saturday with a visit to Queens to take on the four-time defending SAC champion Royals, starting at noon.
