Lynchburg, Va. – The Furman women's lacrosse team suffered a 16-9 defeat to the Liberty Flames in its first road game of the season on Wednesday afternoon from Liberty Lacrosse Field.

Furman drops to 2-1 on the season while Liberty improves to 1-2 overall.

Grace Pollak and Hannah Demis both led the Paladins offensively with five points. Pollak scored a team-high four goals to go with one assist while Demis contributed a hat trick with three goals and dished out two assists. Leah Nonnenmann also had two assists (ties career-high) while Hannah Dintino added one. Kyra LaMotte and Meagan Beal each scored one goal. In goal, Meghan Deehan made six saves.

Anna Keebler scored a game-high six goals to lead the Flames on offense while Hannah Quast, Jordan Baerga and Brooke Bryan all recorded two. Jenna Joyal tallied three assists. Jennifer Soriero grabbed 10 saves in goal.

Furman fell behind 2-0 less than two minutes into the contest before receiving back-to-back goals from LaMotte and Pollak to even the score at 2-2 with 23:11 left in the first half. Liberty responded with a 6-0 run over the next 13 minutes and increased its lead out to 8-2, capped by Keebler's goal at the 9:57 mark. Pollak and Demis then recorded two straight free position goals to send the Paladins into halftime trailing 8-4.

Furman got to within three points to begin the second half when Demis' second goal of the game with 26:36 remaining put the score at 8-5. Pollak later cut the deficit down to 11-7 with 20:11 to go following her unassisted goal.

The Flames came back with five consecutive goals that covered a stretch of 12:42 and increased their lead out to 16-7. Baerga's goal with 6:18 remaining pushed Liberty's lead out to nine goals.

Pollak and Demis scored the game's final two goals over the last four minutes. A goal by Demis with seven seconds left made the final score 16-9.

The Paladins concluded the game with 24 shots, 20 ground balls and 10 draw controls. Furman also forced the Flames into 22 turnovers.

The Paladins return home on Saturday afternoon to host Davidson at 1 p.m.