HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Freshman Erin DePaul scored what was arguably the most important goal in LMU history Saturday afternoon as her program-first sudden-victory goal 14 seconds into overtime propelled the LMU women's lacrosse team to their best-ever regular season and South Atlantic Conference finish, as well as sealed the program's first-ever appearance in the SAC Women's Lacrosse Championships with the 13-12 win over Coker.

The game was the regular season finale for both teams, and was a winner-takes-all contest as the winner earns a post-season berth and the loser's season is over.

With the win, LMU (8-7, 3-5 SAC) set a new program record for wins in a season with eight, besting the six wins set by last year's squad. The three SAC wins are a new program record as well. It was also the first time in program history the team has played in overtime.

It was an entertaining back-and-forth affair as each team would get a multi-goal lead, only to see the other team come back and take a multi-goal lead of their own.
LMU had a pair of quick goals from Casey Kelly and DePaul to take an early 2-0 lead. The Cobras would score their first goal of the game a minute later, only to see LMU again lead by two with a goal from Kennedy Buechner a minute after that.

Coker would then tie the game as Haley McCusker assisted Katie Driskell with a goal and then netted one of her own. Buechner and DePaul would then score back to back goals to put LMU ahead 5-3 with 22:11 left in the half.

Goals by Kelly, Amara Moss and Buechner would counter Coker goals through the rest of the half and LMU held an 8-7 lead at halftime.

A pair of DePaul goals sandwiched a pair of Cobra goals and LMU led 10-9 with 12:22 left in the game. Kelly and Moss then scored to give the Lady Railsplitters a 12-9 lead with a little over 11 minutes remaining.

LMU would then go ice cold for the rest of the second half, allowing Coker to score three goals to tie the game at 12-12 with 7:02 left. They would have three shots down the stretch and limit Coker to only one, but neither team would score, setting up the first overtime game in LMU history.

The winner-takes-all game would end in sudden victory for LMU as Zoe Zervos won the draw, ran down the field to her right and passed the ball to DePaul, who cut across the front of the goal and put it past the keeper in the left side of the goal for the win.

DePaul would lead the team with a career-high five goals. Buechner and Kelly each finished with a hat trick of three goals while Moss had two. Kelly also had four ground balls and won eight draws. Goalie Shannon Novak had 10 saves.

The Cobras were led by McCusker and Faith Kent with three goals apiece.

Both teams had 32 shots, while LMU led in shots on goal (28-22), ground balls (12-10), and draws won (14-13). Coker led in saves (15-10) and turnovers (11-7).

LMU will now play in the program's first-ever postseason game Tuesday afternoon as they have earned the sixth-seed and will play at third-seeded Catawba in the quarterfinal round of the SAC Women's Lacrosse Championship. The Catawba Indians eked out the 12-9 win over LMU in Harrogate on March 24. Tuesday's winner will face second-seeded Queens Friday at 7 p.m. in Wingate, North Carolina.