GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum University nearly overcame a pair of six-goal deficits but fell just short in a 14-13 loss to Gannon University in non-conference women's lacrosse Tuesday afternoon at Pioneer Field.
The Pioneers (2-3) trailed 6-0 early in the second quarter and 12-6 midway through the third before cutting the margin to a single goal with six seconds left. The Golden Knights (2-3) were outscored 8-2 by the Pioneers over the final 23 minutes but held on to snap a three-game losing streak.
Mya Halladay scored a career-high four goals and Liberty Jones set a career high with six points on a goal and five assists for the Pioneers, who outshot the Golden Knights by a slim 26-25 margin. Carmella Nilsson added three goals and Elisha Stack had three assists, with a goal each from Laura Nance Pickens, Jessie Carolin-Vandenberg, Zuza Stasiak, Kayla Nuccio and Reese Remaly.
Charlie Hunter had four goals and an assist for Gannon before being sent off in the second quarter with two yellow cards. Isabella Veltre finished with three goals and four assists, Rayla Smith had three goals and two assists and Megan Lang scored twice for the Golden Knights, who received eight saves from goalkeeper Riley Finnegan.
Hunter scored twice in the first 3 1/2 minutes to give Gannon a 2-0 lead, and her third of the day made it 6-0 Golden Knights with 13:11 left in the second quarter. Pickens put the Pioneers on the board exactly one minute later, starting a run of three goals in two minutes which cut the Gannon lead to 6-3. The teams would swap goals over the final 10 minutes of the half, with Gannon taking an 8-5 lead into halftime.
Two goals apiece from Smith and Veltre gave Gannon its largest lead of the day at 12-5 with 10:28 left in he third quarter, but the Golden Knights would go scoreless for the next 22 minutes. A goal from Jones and two from Halladay cut the Gannon lead to 12-8 after three quarter, and Nilsson and Halladay combined to bring the Pioneers within 12-10 with 12:38 to go.
The teams would play scoreless for the next 9 1/2 minutes before Veltre and Smith scored a minute apart to give Gannon a seemingly insurmountable 14-10 lead with 2:18 left. However, Carolin-Vandenberg scored with 1:55 left and Remaly tallied with 24 seconds left to make it 14-12, and Nilsson scored her third of the day with just over six seconds left to cut the margin to one. Tusculum won the ensuing draw but time ran out before the Pioneers could enter the offensive end.
Halladay and Marissa Fink each had five draw controls for the Pioneers, who had an 18-12 advantage in draws over the Golden Knights. Halladay became the sixth player in program history to reach 100 career draw controls (now at 102). Celeste Raya, Fink and Jones each had two caused turnovers for the Pioneers, while Alyssa Lerch had four draw controls to go with a goal and two assists for Gannon. Smith led all players with six draw controls in the game for the Golden Knights.
Each team had 21 turnovers, with Gannon going 14-for-21 on clears and Tusculum 14-for-19. The Golden Knights had a 21-16 edge ground balls. led by four from Morgan Allardi.
Emily White started in goal for the Pioneers and made two saves in 32 1/2 minutes of playing time, followed by Emery Dove who made three saves in the final 27 1/2 minutes.
Tusculum will host 13th-ranked Wingate on Saturday, March 7 at 3 p.m. at Pioneer Field in the SAC opener for both teams. The Bulldogs are 3-1 overall heading a home match against Seton Hill on Thursday afternoon.
