GREENEVILLE, Tenn. –The Lady Railsplitters moved one step closer to hosting an opening-round South Atlantic Conference tournament match after earning a 13-8 victory over the Tusculum Pioneers in Greeneville, Tenn., on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
With the win, Lincoln Memorial (10-5, 4-3 SAC) secures the first double-digit win season in program history, its most-ever SAC wins in a season and beat Tusculum for the first time in program history. The win also snapped a three-game losing streak for LMU, while the loss dropped Tusculum to 4-10 overall and 2-4 in conference.  
 
Despite the final five-goal margin, the game was a close one the entire first half with the Lady Railsplitters and Pioneers exchanging goals. LMU goalie Micayla Starnes came up big in the game's opening minutes, making two point-blank saves before Amara Moss opened the scoring to give the Lady Railsplitters a 1-0 lead.
 
Tusculum countered with two quick goals a minute apart for a 2-1 lead at the 24-minute mark. LMU answered with three straight goals by Casey Kelly, Erin DePaul and Rachel Bernhardt to open a 4-2 lead with 16 minutes remaining in the first half.
 
The Pioneers would not go away, however, scoring four of the next five goals to take a 6-5 lead. DePaul and Moss responded in the final minute of the first half to produce the 7-6 halftime lead.
 
The second half was all LMU, outscoring Tusculum 6-2 on two goals by DePaul, two from Kennedy Buechner and one each from Moss and Kelly to end the game.
 
"We were definitely looking for our sets today and trying to exploit our matchups," Head Coach Caitlyn Corace said. "I think we did a good job of connecting and finding people."
 
Defensively, LMU held Juliette Cusano, Tusculum's leading scorer, to just one goal. Cusano entered Wednesday's match with 55 goals on the season. 
 
"We had Riannon Beddington on the matchup and when they got switched Hope Smith took her," said Corace. "They did a good job of staying on her body and not going for her stick when she went to the goal."
 
Tusculum could not keep the LMU offense in check. DePaul scored four times to up her team-leading goal total to 44. Moss also scored four times to push her season total to 28, while Kelly and Buechner had two each and Bernhardt had a goal coming off the bench.
 
"We definitely utilized our depth today," Corace said.  
 
Next up for Lincoln Memorial is a trip to Newberry on Saturday with tournament seeding on the line. LMU has a 4-3 conference record, as does Catawba, who lost to Lenoir-Rhyne on Wednesday. LMU holds the first tiebreaker over Catawba by virtue of its 13-2 win earlier in the season. Wingate is ahead of both LMU and Catawba with a 4-2 record with two conference games remaining against first-place Queens and Tusculum.
 
Game time in Saturday's match at Newberry is set for noon.