Demorest, GA – The Piedmont College women’s lacrosse team came out on top of a rematch that lived up to expectations earlier this afternoon with the Lady Lions knocking off visiting Meredith College at Walker Athletic Complex 13-11.
The Lady Lions pick up their 9th straight win to open the 2015 season tying the program’s all-time best mark for an undefeated start as the 2013 club, Piedmont’s inaugural campaign for women’s lacrosse, also started 9-0.
This was the first matchup between the Avenging Angels and the Lady Lions since last year’s USA South Championship Game that saw Meredith prevail 15-14 in overtime to claim the league’s title and a NCAA tourney berth. However, it was Piedmont who came out on top this time around in a thriller as the Lady Lions scored three straight in the closing minutes to assume control after clinging to a 1-goal lead with 6:27 to go.
Freshman Ashley Brunner scored her two goals of the day in that three-straight stretch as she trailed only another freshman and a veteran in the scoring department with Logan Ruck and Alexis Narducci each scoring three. Ruck’s most dramatic score came with 6:56 left in the game as she put away a long distance effort that put Piedmont up two goals seconds after a Cahner Manns score had snapped an 8-8 deadlock.
Junior Maggie McDaniel scored the game’s first goal as Piedmont took a 1-0 lead on the veteran’s score just over six minutes into the contest. However, the Saturday afternoon contest would be a back-and-forth battle between the pair of rising titans as the two teams never scored more than three unanswered goals at any point in the contest.
Meredith tied the score at one not more than four minutes after McDaniel’s goal broke the ice, but two straight for PC put the home team up 3-1 as Tiffany Slaughter scored her first of the season with just under 18 minutes to go in the first to make it a two-goal lead for PC. The two traded scores for the rest of the half as Piedmont held a slim 4-3 lead at the intermission in one of the Green and Gold’s lowest scoring affairs at the half during the 2015 season.
However, each team made adjustments after the break with Meredith gaining the early upper hand responding to another McDaniel score just over 30 seconds into the 2nd with three straight of their own to claim a 6-5 lead, their first lead of the day. With the outlook starting to dim on the Lady Lions, Piedmont would look to one of its stars through the first few seasons of the program’s existence as veteran Alexis Narducci came up with two clutch scores to hand her team back the advantage, 7-6 with 14:30 to go.
A packed Walker Athletic Complex would not quiet the the rest of the day as several onlooking Piedmont teams, with their competition still in remaining the day, cheered on the Green and Gold on the turf as Meredith continued to push its way back in the game with Danielle Lee scoring to make it seven all 40 seconds after Narducci’s go-ahead score.
After Logan Ruck put Piedmont up 8-7 with a goal at the 11:44 mark, Lee answered again with another quick strike scoring 14 seconds later to even it up at 8-8. As anticipation swelled in the Complex, another veteran dug deep as Piedmont’s Cahner Manns took a pass from Ruck and found the back of the net for a 9-8 Piedmont lead and just over seven minutes remaining on the clock.
Ruck then struck from distance to put her team up two, but Meredith quickly answered again with a score to cut the lead to one at 10-9. However, it was then that the Lady Lions rose in front of the hometown crowd and scored three straight in a dramatic 95 seconds as Ashely Brunner tabbed the final two to make it a 13-9 lead for PC.
Looking to hang on, Piedmont relied on its defense from that point forward and though Meredith was able to score twice to make it 13-11 Piedmont, Blake Forrest stood tall in the cage as PC clung to a two goal lead with the sophomore making a key save on a free position attempt with 50 seconds remaining to preserve the victory.
Forrest played all 60 minutes in the cage for PC getting the win to move to 8-0 as a starter this season as she continues to lead the league in goals against average. Forrest made 10 saves today, two shy of a season high for the youngster.
McDaniel led the way in the ground ball department with four to her name while McKynsey Douglas topped the charts with five draw controls while Cahner Manns and Ashley Brunner each had four.
Staying perfect at now 9-0 with the win (4-0 USA South), Piedmont will look to move to 10-0 for the first time in program history when the Lady Lions travel to LaGrange College for another conference matchup. The opening draw with the Panthers is set for 5:30 pm.
