Lee Women Win Gulf South Lacrosse Championship

  • Monday, April 12, 2021
The celebration was on after the Lady Flames defeated UAH to clinch the GSC Regular Season Championship.
The celebration was on after the Lady Flames defeated UAH to clinch the GSC Regular Season Championship.

The Lee University women's lacrosse team claimed their first Gulf South Conference regular season title with a, 13-12, victory over the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Sunday afternoon from the Multi-Sport Complex.

The win wraps up a perfect conference regular season for the Lady Flames while aslo marking the first time the program has defeated UAH in it's short history.

"There is no way to describe the feeling of beating them (UAH), it was a total team victory," Dariana Blanton said after the match.

Shayna Ryan broke an 11-11 tie with 4:12 go taking advantage of a man-up opportunity after a Huntsville (9-3, 2-1 GSC) yellow card to take a one goal advantage.

Lee (8-3, 4-0 GSC) added an insurance goal as Dariana Blanton scored with just under 39 seconds remaining.

UAH did not let it end there, controlling the following draw and scoring just 14 seconds later to cut the lead back to one.

Then, after drawing the final draw control of the contest the Chargers went down and had an opportunity to score but threw it away in the final seconds and the Lady Flames celebration began as the final buzzer sounded.

Blanton scored six goals to pace the field in the contest.

Brittany White threw in three goals of her own and Ryan had a pair of shots that found the back of the net. Avery Schenk and Giselle Gonzalez contributed with one goal each to round out the Lee scorers.

UAH scored the game's first three goals in the opening eight minutes before the Lady Flames answered.

Lee finally scored their first goal as Blanton put one past the keeper to spark a, 4-0, run to gain the lead. Schenk found the goal with 20:09 to go in the half and Blanton threw one in for her second goal just moments later. White ended the run with 13:51 left in the opening period to give the Lady Flames their first lead in the contest.


Huntsville answered with a, 3-1, spurt of their own with under five minutes but Lee responded with back-to-back goals to take a, 7-6, lead innto the halftime break.


The second half looked even all the way through. Cara Brown opened the scoring for the Chargers with a man-up goal just two minutes in.

Blanton regained the lead with two striaght goals including a man-down goal and forced UAH to take a timeout with 23:51 remaining.
 
After trading goals it appeared UAH had taken the lead, but an illegal stick led to a no goal and after a pair of yellow cards Lee took the lead for good with the Ryan goal.

Lee took advantage in the center cirlce wininng the draw control battle 15-12, despite falling in almost every other statistical category.

"Having my defense to uplift me, especially after a goal goes in, it's really hard on goalies mentally when a ball goes in, so jsut having my defense help build me up, and having amazing coaches allowed me to be successful today," said keeper Kaleigh Bernard.

Bernard proved to be a wall in goal making 14 saves, including crucial saves in the final five mintues, on 26 shots on goal going the distance to pick up the win for the Lady Flames.

Tori Ryan got the start in goal for the Chargers allowing both goals she faced and lasting only 10 minutes. Shiana Doser went the remaining 50 minutes mkaing nine saves while allowing 11 goals.

White led all players with eight draw controls and Jaylee Giffin recorded two ground balls to pace the Lady Flames.

Brown led UAH with five goals. Sarah Pagotto was credited with four ground balls and Katie Gerber had a team-high six draw controls.

"It's super," head coach Derrel Martin responded when asked what it was like to be GSC regular season champs. He continued, "We have two seinors that take us back to when we were not winning many games. It was a hard fought game today and it was just super special. Being the regular season champs, we went through there having some tough games, winning two by one goal. It's super exciting."

The Lady Flames will be back in action on Saturday, April 17 as they step out of conference play to wrap up the regular season against Southern Wesleyan beginning at 2 p.m. The GSC Semifinals are set for Wednesday, April 21. The Lady Flames will host the No. 4 seed at teh Multi-Sport Complex.

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