HARROGATE, Tenn. — Lacrosse is a game of runs. Once a team gets on a scoring roll it can turn the tide of a match very quickly. On Tuesday afternoon, Lincoln Memorial's women's lacrosse match was a tale of two runs. The first run was by Lee University, which scored the first three goals of the game in a span of nine minutes. The second run started LMU on the way to a lopsided 18-6 win at the LMU Lacrosse Complex.
 
After a timeout, the Lady Railsplitters ran off six straight goals in a little more than nine minutes to start the route. With the win, LMU improved its record to 6-1 overall and extended the program record for longest winning streak to six games. 
 
"Lacrosse is a game of runs, so when an opponent goes on a run I want to nip it in the bud as soon as possible," Head Coach Caitlyn Corace said. "I think it was about 10 minutes into the game when Lee scored three in a row and I called a timeout. I wanted to make a change on the draw and start applying pressure."
 
The timeout, along with moving Amara Moss onto the draw line, provided the spark the Lady Railsplitters needed to begin their six-goal run.
 
"Caitlin Sweeney (graduate assistant coach) and I talked about the change. Casey Kelly is very quick on the draw but Amara is much stronger," said Corace. "We thought her strength against their girl would benefit us and it happened to work out."
 
In addition to being a catalyst on the draw, Moss also had a big offensive day scoring five goals to pace the offensive attack. Erin DePaul, the reigning SAC AstroTurf Offensive Player of the Week, continued her torrid scoring with four goals, Jasmin Click and Kennedy Buechner added three each, Kelly Csenar had a pair and Melanie Cascio had one goal.
 
"The chemistry on offense has probably been the best I've seen in my five years here," Corace said. "They work very hard at finding each other and we've had a lot more assists this year than we've ever had before.
  
"Jasmin (four assists) has been helping with those feeds," continued Corace. "When that starts happening the girls see where they can slip through the defense and start looking for each other. Their confidence has grown each game and they have really pulled it together as a unit."
 
Defensively, LMU was led by goalie Micayla Starnes and defender Zoe Zervos. Starnes, the most recent SAC AstroTurf Defensive Player of the Week, made 11 saves and was instrumental in starting the offensive charge with her clearing passes. A key element in Corace's defensive plan was to push the Flames offense beyond the eight-meter line.
 
"One of our goals today was to keep pushing them beyond the line so that if there is a foul it is outside the line and at a low shot angle," she said. "We have been giving up a lot of free position shots so we wanted to stay in on their hands and force them to make passes that were off the mark.
 
"As for Micayla, she is on fire," praised Corace. "She had some really nice feeds up to our attackers. She really saw the field well today."
 
Once the Lady Railsplitters pulled ahead in the first half, they kept their foot on the gas. LMU led 8-4 at the end of the first half and increased the lead to 11-4 in the first five minutes of the second half. From the 23-minute mark of the second half until the finish, LMU outscored Lee by a 7-2 margin to blow the game open.
 
"Today we talked about the gas pedal," said Corace. "After my timeout early we told the girls we don't want them to come back. The girls really responded."
 
Next up for LMU will be a road test against SAC powerhouse Queens at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.
 
"We have to stay focused the next two days in practice," Corace said. "We have a conference opponent that is a very good team. We need to have our A game."