SALISBURY, N.C. – The LMU women's lacrosse team was less than one minute away from the biggest upset of the young program's history as they led Catawba 16-15 with 30 seconds left. Those hopes were dashed as Catawba's Nicolette Salay scored twice to steal the 17-16 victory away from the Lady Railsplitters.

LMU was led in the loss by Jasmin Click (Clermont, Fla.) and Casey Kelly (Ellenwood, Ga.) with five goals apiece. Heather Roache (Vero Beach, Fla.) had three goals, Zoe Zervos (Ithaca, N.Y.) scored two and Amara Moss (Woodbridge, Va.) netted a goal. Click also led the team with three ground balls and seven draws won. Moss also won seven draws. The loss overshadowed a stellar effort from Shannon Novak (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) who had eleven saves.  

Salay and Kirstyn Kruze led the Indians with three goals each.

LMU rolled out to the early 4-0 lead off of a pair of goals by Click and goals from Roache and Zervos. The Indians would answer with three goals of their own before Kelly found the cage twice and Roache added in her second goal of the day to make the score 7-6 mid-way through the first half. Catawba scored four goals over the next five minutes to take the 9-7 lead before Kelly and Click would tie the game with 6:40 left in the half. CC would then score twice down the stretch to take the 11-9 lead into halftime.

A pair of Indian goals with a goal by Click in between made the score 13-10 in favor of Catawba with 24:46 remaining. Kelly and Click would find the back of the net over the next couple of minutes to cut the score to 13-12. The Indians' Gianna Pezzulo would score, followed shortly after by Kelly to keep the CC lead at one, 14-13, with 16:56 left. Roache would tie the game up at 14-14 a minute later, and several minutes after that Zervos would score the free position goal to give LMU the 15-14 lead with 12:50 remaining.

???????Salay would score with 9:56 remaining to tie the game at 15-15. That was the score for the next several minutes before Moss scored what appeared to be the go-ahead goal with 4:26 left. Both teams traded possession down the stretch, but an LMU turnover led to Salay's goal that tied the game with 27 seconds remaining. Catawba won the ensuing draw and with one second remaining in the game Salay drove in the game-winning goal off the assist from Nicole Hunt. Kennedy Buechner (Stafford, Va.) won the ensuing draw but LMU could not get a shot off in time.

LMU falls to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the South Atlantic Conference. They return home to host UVa-Wise Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m.