HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Lee women's lacrosse team saw its season come to end on Friday evening as Flagler avenged a regular season loss and took down the Lady Flames, 15-9 in the Gulf South Conference Semifinals.
The difference in the contest was the play of Saints goalie, Lauren Ribadeneira who was stellar with 22 saves. Lee outshot Flagler, 37-26 and committed seven less turnovers but Ribadeneira turned away shot after shot.
Flagler broke things open in the second quarter outscoring the Lady Flames, 5-1 to take an 8-3 lead into the halftime break. The Saints kept the margin at five or more the rest of the way to punch their ticket to the GSC Championship on Sunday.
Dariana Blanton ended her Lady Flame career in a fitting way with the hat trick. She ends a sensational career as the all-time points, goals and assists leader in program history, Vecsey, and Sara-Kate Dixon added two goals each and Audrey Dutton and Avery Schenk added one score each. Brittney White led Lee with eight draw controls.
Kaleigh Bernard started and worked the first three quarter is goal for the Lady Flames. She allowed 12 goals and had seven saves. Caleigh Smith came off the bench to work the fourth and gave up three goals while registering a pair of saves.
Shayna Ryan wrapped up her fantastic career with seven ground balls and two draw controls. Ryan served as both a captain and a team chaplain for the Lady Flames. She is the fourth leading scorer in Lee Lacrosse history with 93 goals, second in assists with 37, and third in draw controls with 153.
"We had a hard fight on a hot day that didn't work out in our favor. Flagler's goalie had a great day, and we couldn't get many shots past her," said Lee head coach Derrel Martin. "I would say that our layoff between games probably made us a bit rusty. Free position shots were a strong point for us this year, but we just weren't able to capitalize on those opportunities. Kaleigh Bernard turned in a solid game in the goal with seven saves. Dariana Blanton came through with three goals and Sara-Kate Dixon did a great job for us coming in and picking up two goals and two draw controls."
The Lady Flames had a 16-day layoff between their 22-14 win over Young Harris and tonight's game after Mars Hill canc
elled a non-conference contest scheduled for last week.
Kaitlyn Bush paced the Saints with five goals and Katelyn Trainor and Kate Piscopo found the back of the net three times each.
The Lady Flames end the 2022 season at 8-8 on the year.
