ROME, Ga. – The Lee women's lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the 2019 season as it opened Gulf South Conference play with a 16-13 loss at Shorter on Saturday afternoon.
Freshman Dariana Blanton led the Lady Flames with six goals and 11 shots. The Canton, Ga. native leads the team with 15 goals through her first three games (she did not play in Thursday's win against Tennessee Wesleyan due to flu-like symptoms). Sophomore Becca Broadwick added a goal and three assists.
The Hawks featured a balance scoring attack led by Armani Robinson's four goals. Aubrey Geiger added three goals and two assists while Allie Perry also had three scores and an assist.
The Lady Flames held a 12-11 lead on Blanton's fifth goal of the match with 21:45 remaining. From there however it was all Hawks as they scored five straight goals to put the match out of reach. Geiger completed the run as she found the back of the net with 5:11 remaining.
"We dropped very physical lacrosse game today against Shorter. We started slow and then tried to play catch-up for the entire contest," said Lee head coach Derrel Martin. "We are not a big team and we tend to get pushed around when we are close to the goal. We hustled the entire game and did not give up but we just cold not pull ahead. We are battling injuries and sickness so we don't have many substitutes to help us out right now."
Abby Sanders had eight saves in goal for the Lady Flames. Peyton Reid had two saves and allowed four goals in relief of Sydney Jones, who started and gave up nine goals while recording six saves for Shorter.
The Hawks led 20-10 in grounds balls. Each team tallied 30 shots and were nearly even in draw controls with Shorter holding a slim 16-15 advantage.
The loss drops the Lady Flames to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the GSC while the win moves Shorter to 2-4 and 1-2 in league play.
"This week doesn't get any easier as we play several ranked team sin Florida and we will need to do a great job of taking care of the ball," noted Martin.
Before heading to the Sunshine State, Lee will get right back to work on Sunday afternoon as it hosts Gannon (Ind.) University. Opening draw is set for 2 p.m. and will be played on the turf field at Cleveland High School's Benny Monroe Stadium due to rain in the forecast.
