CLINTON, S.C.- The Presbyterian College women's lacrosse team won its second straight game on Friday night with a 15-14 victory over Mercer at Old Bailey Stadium.
The Blue Hose improve to 2-5 overall on the year, while Mercer drops to 3-4 overall. PC hosts Jacksonville on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the final game of the year at Old Bailey. The remaining conference games will be played at Martin Stadium.
Friday's game featured advantages of 26-22 in total shots, 26-22 in ground balls, and 15-12 in caused turnovers for PC.
Katy Richardson (Lake Worth, Fla.) led the Blue Hose with four goals. Claire Frase (Fort Mill, S.C.) recorded her first career hat trick in the win and Kathleen Gerrits (Lake Worth, Fla.), Lauren Schaaf (Ellicott City, Md.), and Alexandra Cole (Duluth, Ga.) each had two goals apiece. Grace Gabrovic (Orlando, Fla.) and Kelty Fletcher (Jupiter, Fla.) scored one goal each.
Jess Goergen (Fayetteville, Ga.) had a team-high three assists, while Frase and Gerrits each dished out one. Taylor Johnson (Kennesaw, Ga.) won five draw controls for the Blue Hose, Maura Talvacchia (Moorestown, N.J.) had six caused turnovers, and Amanda Lindsey (Peachtree City, Ga.) registered six ground balls.
Lee-Ann Salim (East Islip, N.Y.) was credited with the win for the Blue Hose. She made seven saves in her 60 minutes in goal.
Erica Coyne tallied a game-high six goals in the loss for Mercer. Kate Leone registered a hat trick, while Jillian Bailey and Meghan Segreti had two goals apiece and Holly Berns had one.
Bailey and Lindsey Zeltwanger had two assists each for the Bears, while Coyne and Leone each had one.
Haleigh Wurzel and Michele Holmes split time in goal for the Bears. Wurzel made two saves in the first half and Holmes recorded three in the second half.
Mercer jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals scored by Bernes and Coyne in the opening two minutes of the game, but Frase put PC on the board when she took a pass from Goergen and scored with 22:56 to play in the first half.
Segreti scored her first goal of the game for the Bears a few minutes later on a free position shot. Gabrovic tallied her lone goal of the game on a pass from Goergen with 20:30 left in the opening half to make the score 3-2.
Mercer scored the next four goals of the game, three of them by Coyne, to take a 7-2 lead with 14:47 on the clock, but the Blue Hose would fight back and go on to score five-straight goals, one by Richardson on a pass from Gerrits, and then back-to-back goals for both Cole and Gerrits, to tie it up 7-7 with 10:04 to play in the half.
Leone broke the scoring drought for the Bears with 9:16 left in the half, but PC would close out the half with three unanswered goals by Richardson, Frase, and Fletcher to take a 10-8 lead at halftime.
Richardson drew the first blood of the second half when she scored seven minutes into action. Schaaf scored her first goal of the game just two minutes later to give PC its largest lead of the game, 12-8, with 21:13 to play.
Mercer scored on back-to-back goals to cut it to two, 12-10, with just over half to play in the period.
With 14:14 to play, Frase scored her third goal of the game to stretch PC's lead back to three points, but Leone tallied a goal for the Bears to cut it back to two again.
Frase found Schaaf for her second goal of the game with 9:14 on the clock to make the score 14-11, but Coyne tallied two more goals for Mercer to cut it to one with just 6:36 to play.
Richardson scored her fourth and final goal of the game with 3:20 remaining. Segreti cut it to one with less than one minute to play, but good defense kept the game in PC's hands for the remaining time.
