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Derrel Martin picked up his first victory as the Lee head coach as the women's lacrosse team won its season opener over Erskine, 20-17, on Saturday afternoon at the Lee Soccer Field.
 
The win was Martin's first career victory in NCAA play as the head coach came from Tennessee Wesleyan, an NAIA School, with an 11-5 record under his belt before taking the helm.
 
In his first game with the Lady Flames, the hosts got off to a fast start scoring the first six goals of the contest. The first goal of the year came from the stick of freshman Shayna Ryan just 4:30 into the match. The run saw two goals from Kaylyn Dillon and one goal each from Ryan, Becca Broadwick, Emma Hill, and Rachel Duda.
 
Erskine (0-4) finally got on the board with 19:51 remaining in the first on a Kayleigh Burns unassisted goal to jumpstart a 4-1 run, including two short-handed goals, to trim the lead to two.
 
Lee (1-0) answered with a run of their own scoring the next five goals. Cabi Coward picked up a yellow card and gave the Lady Flames the player advantage that they capitalized on with a Rachel Giles goal with 9:06 left in the first to take a five-goal lead. Dariana Blanton then scored the next two goals to stretch the game to a 12-5 score just under a minute later.
 
The Flying Fleet bounced and closed the first half with a 5-1 run to cut the lead to three going into the locker room.
 
Broadwick scored the first goal of the second half just under two minutes into play before Erskine answered with a 7-2 run to take a 17-16 lead, their first of the game.
 
Lee took advantage of two penalty opportunities as Hill scored while Burns was in the penalty box to knot things up at 17 all with 6:07 left in the game. Then, just under twenty seconds later Hill threw one in as Marissa Catania was in the box to take the lead for good 18-17 with 5:43 left to play. Broadwick and Blanton threw in goals under three minutes to ice the game and hold on for the 20-17 victory.
 
"We got up early, but then we let them get back in the game. It got close, but we didn't quit fighting," head coach Martin praised. He continued, "We came out in the second half and let them get up, but we stayed in it and chased after the ball pretty hard."
 
Blanton recorded five goals in the contest to lead the Lady Flames. Hill, Broadwick, and Ryan each recorded three goals to round out the hat trick scorers for Lee.
 
Burns paced the Flying Fleet with six goals while Faith Flanagan and Katie Schlagenhauf had four goals each.
 
"It wasn't pretty, but we will take the win," concluded Martin.