GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Wingate University scored the first seven goals and went on to a 22-6 victory over Tusculum University in South Atlantic Conference women's lacrosse action Saturday at Pioneer Field.
Bella Pellet score six goals and Page Kamer had a goal and six assists for the 21st-ranked Bulldogs (14-2, 9-1 SAC), who won their eighth straight game and locked up second place in the SAC standings behind top-ranked Queens. Wingate outshot Tusculum 43-11 and forced the Pioneers into 31 turnovers in the match.
Tia Tuininga led the Pioneers (4-12, 1-9 SAC) with three goals and an assist, with a goal apiece from Emily Youngblood, Jessica Spiegel and Kamryn McNeil. Tusculum was 7-for-24 in clear attempts and gave up scoring runs of five, six and seven goals to Wingate in the contest.
Three goals from Wingate's Nelida Watson in the first five minutes helped Wingate to a quick 5-0 lead, and the Bulldogs led 7-0 before McNeil scored for the Pioneers with 5:12 left in the first quarter. Goals from Youngblood and Tuininga in the final two minutes of the period left Tusculum trailing 8-3 after one.
Wingate received three goals from Pellet in the first six minutes of the second quarter on its way to building a 13-3 lead with 8:19 left in the first half. Tuininga's second goal of the afternoon with 6:08 to go was answered by Wingate's Avery Scherer with 2:59 remaining as the Bulldogs carried a 14-4 lead to halftime.
Tuininga scored her third goal of the game just 1:16 into the third quarter, but the Bulldogs would keep the Pioneers off the board for the next 20 minutes as two goals apiece from Pellet and Madi Caldwell boosted the Wingate lead to 20-5 with 10:24 remaining. Spiegel converted a feed from Lucy Brewer for a goal with 8:07 left, but Wingate would close the scoring with goals from Meghan Higgins and Pellet in the final 5 1/2 minutes.
Tuininga led the Pioneers with six draw controls with two apiece from Youngblood, McNeil and Brewer. Leighann Yudin led the Pioneers with a pair of caused turnovers and also had two ground balls as did Chloe Michalski and Bethany Thomas. For Wingate, Leah Knowles had five ground balls, six draw controls and five caused turnovers along with two goals and three assists, while Becca Ruiz had five draw controls and three ground balls while contributing two goals and two assists.
Wingate had a 17-13 advantage in draw controls over Tusculum and a 27-15 edge in ground balls. The Bulldogs were 12-for-14 on clear attempts and went 2-for-5 on free position shots, while the Pioneers were 1-for-1 on free position attempts which came on Tuininga's goal near the end of the first half.
Taylor Floyd made 17 saves in goal for the Pioneers, while the Bulldogs used three different goalies with starter Megan Biase making one save and Emily Rango collecting two stops, with zero by Riley Boone.
Tuininga finished the season ranked second in program history in both goals (55) and points (74) in a single season, and Floyd set the single-season record for saves with 138.
