Demorest, GA – The Piedmont College women’s lacrosse team fell behind early for the second straight game but took control after the early pressure to earn a 17-8 victory over Centre College at Walker Athletic Complex.
Piedmont trailed 3-1 in the early going as Centre answered a Maggie McDaniel score with one of their own to take the 2-goal lead with just over seven minutes gone in the first half.
Kayla Freund scored for the home team with 19:17 remaining to not only cut the deficit down to one, but also tab a goal that started a streak of seven straight scores for the home team as Piedmont took control after the early deficit.
Five different Lady Lions combined for the seven scores that Piedmont up by five, 8-3 in the first half with Maggie McDaniel and Mckynsey Douglas each tallying two in the stretch.
Centre would score another before the half was out to make it an 8-4 lead for the Lady Lions, but Piedmont had swung the momentum its favor already by that point.
The visiting Colonels scored first in the second half as well, but Piedmont responded with two as Douglas and Alexis Narduci scored back-to-back efforts separated by just 15 seconds to double up Centre 10-5 with still 20 minutes to go.
Centre was able to cut the lead to four with a goal at the 12:12 mark, but Piedmont expanded its 11-7 advantage to 13-7 with two more as McDaniel and Douglas accounted for the scores that put the lead to six.
After the Colonels scored with 4:20 to go, Piedmont would tack on four goals in the final four minutes to set the final margin at 17-8 in favor of the home team as Piedmont won its 13th straight contest to open 2015.
McDaniel topped the Lady Lions with her half dozen goals also topping the team lead with assists (4) and tied for the top spot in the ground balls column with four along with teammate Jennie Brideau. McDaniel is in the top six in the country in both assists per game and total assists as well.
Just behind McDaniel on the score sheet was McKynsey Douglas who netted five on the day while Narducci tabbed three more to the totals. Douglas leads the team with her 53 this season while McDaniel has 38 and Narducci scored her 30th today.
All three of those are in the top 11 of the USA South including Douglas who ties for 4th in that column in the league.
Leading on the draw today for PC was veteran Cahner Manns who tallied eight on the afternoon tying Ellen Resigner for the game-high in that category.
Now sitting at 13-0 on the year with the win over Centre College, Piedmont will look to complete the regular season with perfection if the Lady Lions can get a victory at Sewanee (12-0, 4-0 SAA) on Wednesday, April 8. The Tigers of Sewanee, however, are fighting for their own perfect season taking on another undefeated team in Rhodes College (9-0, 4-0 SAA) later Friday (April 3) afternoon.
Should Sewanee knock off Rhodes, the Tigers will also need to defeat Millsaps on Saturday to come into the April 8 matchup with Piedmont still undefeated as the Tigers would then be 14-0 and also be undefeated in the Southern Athletic Association at that point. The opening draw on April 8 is set for 6:00 pm in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Fans can follow the contest with live stats and video available courtesy of the Office of Sports Information at Sewanee.
