Greenville, S.C. – Kyra LaMotte recorded a hat trick and the Paladins outscored Fresno State 7-4 in the second half as the Furman women's lacrosse team rallied for a 12-11 victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon at Paladin Stadium.
Furman improves to 2-0 on the season while Fresno State drops to 0-1 overall.
LaMotte led the Paladins offensively tying her career-high of three goals while
Grace Pollak,
Lauren Farber and
Hannah Demis each had two.
Leah Nonnenmann,
Hannah Dintino and
Meagan Beal all compiled one goal. Pollak matched her career-best of three assists and Demis contributed two. Demis and
Rachel Sindler both led the team with four ground balls.
Morgan Franklin tallied four draw controls. In goal,
Meghan Deehan finished with 10 saves to earn the win.
Sydney Skalstad posted a team-high four goals for the Bulldogs while Megan Walaitis dished out two assists. Marina Mayo also scored two goals. Laurel Maunder collected 14 saves in goal.
Demis wasted little time giving Furman the early 1-0 lead, scoring just 32 seconds into the contest off Pollak's assist. Fresno State answered with three consecutive goals to go in front 3-1 at the 26:22 mark. LaMotte would score two of her three goals over the next 4:04 as the Paladins evened the score at 4-4 with 12:17 to go. After the Bulldogs recorded the next two goals, Dintino came back with a free position goal to cut the deficit down to 6-5 with 2:11 left. Kayla Galet added a late goal for Fresno State to give it a 7-5 lead at halftime.
The teams traded the first five goals of the second half capped by Farber's with 14:52 left, putting the score at 9-8. Pollak followed Farber's goal with her own at the 13:33 mark to tie the score at 9-9. Beal and Demis then scored back-to-back goals over a stretch of 1:11 and gave Furman an 11-9 lead. After the Bulldogs got to within one with 7:02 to go, Farber put the Paladins back in front by two, 12-10, with 4:58 remaining. Fresno State scored with 2:44 remaining to make the final score 12-11.
Furman finished the game with a 35-28 advantage in shots, 24-20 in ground balls and 14-11 in draw controls. The Paladins also forced the Bulldogs into 21 turnovers.
Furman hits the road for the first time this season on Wednesday, February 19 traveling to Liberty for a 1 p.m. contest.
