The Lee women's lacrosse team saw its comeback effort fall short in dropping an 11-8 contest to Missouri Western on a cold and windy Friday night at the Ray Conn Sports Complex.
The Griffons went on a 7-0 run after the Lady Flames scored two quick goals and never looked back. Lee did battle back from down 7-2 to pull within two goals at 9-7 and 10-8 in the fourth quarter but couldn't draw any closer.
Missouri Western dominated the draw control in the fourth quarter to limit Lee's chances. The Griffons shutout the Lady Flames, 6-0 in the draw circle in the final period.
Karlin York led the way for Missouri Western with five goals. York provided the offensive punch and All-American goalie Mackenzie Porter led a stingy Griffons' defense. Porter recorded nine saves and five groundballs in victory. Missouri Western was efficient offensively as it took 21 shots but placed 18 on mark and scored on 11 of those chances. Lee tallied 28 shots but only 17 were on goal.
Maggie Luzier and Hannah Vecsey paced the Lady Flames with two goals each. Kaleigh Bernard had seven saves in the loss.
"Missouri Western is an athletic and physical team and they came out and played well so I give them credit," said Lee head coach Derrel Martin. "Their goalie is an All-American and she made some big saves and we were trying a few different things offensively to try and break through. Hannah Vecsey gave us a spark their in third and we kept fighting. One thing I love about Lee lacrosse is we always keep fighting. I thought tonight at times we didn't take care of the ball like we should be I loved our effort throughout."
The Lady Flames fall to 4-5 on the year. Lee has lost five straight but four of those losses have come to teams ranked in the top 20 and four of the losses have come by three goals or less. Missouri Western improves to 3-3 on the year.
Lee will get back to action on Thursday as it hosts Palm Beach Atlantic at 6:30 p.m. at the Ray Conn Sports Complex.