LAGRANGE, Ga. — After earning the No. 2 seed and a first round bye, the Averett University women's lacrosse team advanced to the USA South Conference Tournament Championship game with a 15-12 over the No. 3-seeded Piedmont College on Friday afternoon.
This caps off a historic season for Averett (14-4, 9-2 USA South), who not only won its first conference tournament game in program history, but is advancing to the conference championship for the first time as well. This comes after the Cougars concluded the regular season with the best record both overall and in conference play in program history.
It was a back and forth affair from early on, as neither team led by more than two goals in the opening half, with Averett taking a 3-1 lead just four minutes into the game. Piedmont (10-8, 8-3 USA South) battled back to briefly take a 5-4 lead, before the Cougars answered with a 3-1 run to take a 7-6 lead heading into the halftime break.
The Lions tied the game at 7-7 to start the second half and the teams continued to go back and forth with Averett taking a 10-9 lead with 20:28 remaining in the game. The Cougars then pulled away with five of the next six goals to take a 15-10 lead with eight minutes remaining in the game and effectively put the game out of reach and seal the win.
Sophomore
Elizabeth Peasley led the team with four goals and eight draw controls on the day, while freshman
Hannah Mae Ayers led the team with eight points on three goals and a team-high five assists. Junior
Abby Taylor was next up with three goals, senior
Alixis Roccia had two goals and three assists, freshman
Courtney DeLone added two goals and one assist while freshman
Adriana Perez rounded out the scoring with a goal of her own.
Defensively, seniors
Kaitlyn Barbour and
Rosa Morales were key difference makers, leading the team with five ground balls each while Barbour had a team-high four caused turnovers and Morales tallied three. Roccia and sophomore
Caroline Earle also tabbed three caused turnovers for the Cougars.
Averett will face No. 1-seeded Meredith College in the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
