HARROGATE, Tenn. — Strong defense and a high-powered scoring attack have powered the Lincoln Memorial women's lacrosse team to a program-record nine wins this season. On Saturday, the defense played another strong game, but the offense was stymied in an 8-6 South Atlantic Conference loss to Wingate at the LMU Lacrosse Complex. 
 
With the loss, the Lady Railsplitters drop to 9-3 overall and 3-2 in the SAC. Wingate is now 4-7 overall and 2-2 in SAC play, just one game behind LMU.
 
Lincoln Memorial opened fast with Kelly Csenar getting her 28th goal of the season less than a minute into the contest. Both teams settled into a defensive tussle for the next 10 minutes before the Bulldogs evened the score on an Emily Ketron goal off a free position shot.
 
Casey Kelly answered with her 14th goal of the season less than a minute later to put LMU up 2-1. Wingate responded at the 14:07 mark with Ketron's second goal, but LMU's Jasmin Click restored the lead with her 13th goal of the season at the 13:25 mark. Wingate went up 4-3 at the 4:51 mark of the first half but Kennedy Buechner tied the game after that and the half ended with the teams knotted at four.
 
The second half proved to be all Wingate as the Bulldogs scored the first three goals to build a 7-4 lead by the 12:55 mark. LMU cut the lead to one at 7-6 with goals by Csenar and Buechner, but that was as close as the Lady Railsplitters would come.
 
"They played good body defense on us," Head Coach Caitlyn Corace said. "They played good clean defense on us and did not commit a lot of fouls. They did a good job."
 
Defensively, Micayla Starnes was again stellar in goal. She kept the Lady Railsplitters in the game and lowered her goals against average with the effort.
 
"She played great, she was fantastic," Corace said of Starnes. "She had some great point-blank saves and helped keep the game close. Overall, our defense played very well. We forced them deep into the shot clock. I felt we did very well with our individual matchups. We just didn't do it offensively."
 
Two of LMU's top scorers, Erin DePaul and Amara Moss, were kept off the scoresheet with DePaul only notching an assist. For Csenar, the two goals give her 29 for the year, while Buechner scored twice to give her 16, and Jasmin Click and Kelly each had one goal apiece.
 
LMU will have a short turnaround with No. 12 nationally-ranked University of Indianapolis coming to Harrogate Tuesday.
 
"We just take it one step at a time and move on to the next," Corace said. "We have the next game to look forward to."