Demorest, GA – For the second consecutive season, Piedmont College women’s lacrosse has finished the USA South regular season undefeated and clinched both the league’s regular season title and the #1 seed in the championship tournament. PC did so by knocking off Huntingdon College 20-4 earlier today at Walker Athletic Complex finishing 6-0 in league play this season.
Piedmont went 8-0 in league play in 2014 to also post an undefeated regular season in the USA South. The Lady Lions last lost a USA South regular season contest nearly two calendar years ago falling to Christopher Newport University back on March 30 of 2013, Piedmont’s first season of women’s lacrosse.
The leading scorer on the day was none other than McKynsey Douglas who tallied six scores including the 100th of her Lady Lion career when she fired a score past Huntingdon keeper Victoria Krupa with 8:30 to go in the first half to hand Piedmont a 7-0 lead over the visitors. The Lady Lions would hold an 8-0 lead before Huntingdon scored its first of the day as Piedmont controlled action from the start leading 10-2 at the half.
Douglas, who also leads the Lady Lions this season in scoring after totaling a team-high 61 in 2014 to top the charts that year as well, has now scored 103 goals since arriving in Demorest as a transfer from Coastal Carolina prior to the start of the 2014 campaign. Adding in her seven goals with the Chanticleers in 2013, Douglas’ 110 career goals is second only to fellow Lady Lion teammate Alexis Narducci who has scored 118 in her collegiate career through just under three complete seasons.
Narducci scored her 100th career goal earlier this season in a 20-0 shutout of Hanover College as she led the Lady Lions in scoring her freshman year with one-shy of 50. The veteran scored 44 to follow-up that debut, but the individual accolades don’t end there as Narducci’s classmate Maggie McDaniel scored earlier today in the win over HC and now sits at 88 career goals 12 away of becoming yet another century scorer for PC.
Leading by eight at the intermission, Piedmont scored the first three of the second half as well with Caitlin O’ Brien starting it off just 1:40 into the period as she put away an unassisted effort. With a 13-2 advantage, Piedmont allowed the visitors a goal back but scored four straight afterwards to make it a 17-3 game with still a dozen minutes remaining in regulation.
The Lady Lions never looked back taking the 20-4 decision against the USA South foe for their sixth conference victory of the season. In the half dozen conference games of 2015, Piedmont has now outscored the competition by an incredible 83 to 35 margin.
Blake Forrest got the win in the cage to move to 10-0 as a starter this season as the sophomore made 11 saves to preserve the victory for PC. Forrest becomes the first Piedmont goalie to win her first ten decisions in goal as well.
Douglas led all scorers with her six while freshman Ashley Brunner and the veteran scorer Narducci each added three. McDaniel was the assists leader with an astounding seven as she continues to orchestrate the highest scoring offense in the league while also topping the individual USA South charts with her assists mark.
McDaniel also picked up nine ground balls, a game-high, while three others picked up four each. The leader on the draw was Cahner Manns who had four on the afternoon.
By virtue of the 16-goal victory today over visiting Huntingdon, the Lady Lions move to 11-0 overall and also clinch the top seed in the upcoming USA South Championship Tournament which will be held once again at the league’s Spring Festival in North Carolina on the weekend of April 17 & 18.
The Lady Lions will put their perfect overall record on the line once again when the team travels to play Berry College on Tuesday, March 31 with the opening draw set for 4:00 pm.
