NEWBERRY, S.C. – The Lincoln Memorial women's lacrosse team rolls into Newberry, S.C., on Saturday afternoon looking to keep its hopes alive of hosting an opening round South Atlantic Conference tournament game.
 
The Lady Railsplitters (10-5, 4-3 SAC) are in a fight with Catawba and Wingate for the right to host a first-round SAC match. Catawba is currently 4-3 in conference play with a match against Tusculum remaining. Wingate is 4-2 in conference with games against undefeated Queens and Tusculum remaining on its league slate. If all three teams finish the season with a 5-3 conference record, a number of tiebreakers will go into effect to determine the host teams.
 
First, LMU must take care of business against Newberry (2-12, 0-6 SAC) on Saturday. The Wolves are a young team that has experienced growing pains this season. Its only two wins have come in out of conference contests against Converse and Erskine.
 
"Preparation for this game is similar to Tusculum," Head Coach Caitlyn Corace said. "They are a young team with a new coach and are going through growing pains. They have 14 games under their belt and some experience that they did not have earlier in the season. Some of the games they lost were close and we do not want to give them a chance to make a run and keep it close.
 
"We just have to focus on what we do, playing them well and executing," Corace added.
 
In the Lady Railsplitters' win against Tusculum Wednesday, the Pioneers gave LMU a tough time in the first half, trailing only 7-6 at the break. In the second half, LMU asserted its will and came home with a 13-8 victory.
 
"Tusculum will hold the ball and work the shot clock down waiting for the opening to make a play," said Corace. "They kind of lull you and control the tempo, especially in the first half. We cannot play down to the level of our opponent. In the second half we took over and controlled the tempo."
 
Newberry comes into the game with a freshman, Chloe Wood, as its leading scorer with 46 goals and two 30-goal scorers in Sophie Moore and Rachel Dillon. On the negative side, the Wolves are giving up an average of 19 goals per game.
 
Offensively, the Lady Railsplitters came alive against Tusculum with leading scorer Erin DePaul hitting the back of the net four times to bring her team-leading goal total to 44. Amara Moss also scored four times to up her season total to 28 and Casey Kelly and Kennedy Buechner had two goals apiece.
 
"We are focused on beating Newberry and putting ourselves in a position to host," Corace said. "If we don't beat Newberry we are not even in the conversation about hosting. We really want to host and that is all I am focused on right now. Sunday is when I'll be thinking about those tiebreakers a little more."
 
Saturday's game is set for a noon start. Live stats and video links are available at www.lmurailsplitters.com.