WINGATE, N.C. — The Lincoln Memorial women's lacrosse team saw its season come to an end on Friday at the hands of Lenoir-Rhyne in the semifinals of the South Atlantic Conference Championship as the Lady Railsplitters dropped a hard-fought 16-8 decision to the Bears.
 
LMU completes its most successful season in program history with a 12-6 overall record, a 5-3 SAC mark, its first win in the conference tournament and first trip to the semifinal round.
 
The Lady Railsplitters held a 5-4 lead over L-R (12-5) at the 11:52 mark of the first half but the Bears responded by scoring the final four goals of the half and opening the second half with a goal to build a 9-5 lead that it would not relinquish.
 
Rachel Elmore spearheaded the L-R attack with six goals and teammate Alyssa Sack added five.
 
"We just could not capitalize on our opportunities and they did the little things that mattered on their run," Head Coach Caitlyn Corace said.  
 
Senior Jasmin Click provided the bulk of the offense for LMU, hitting the back of the net five times. Single goals by senior Casey Kelly, Erin DePaul and Kelly Csenar closed out the LMU scoring.
 
The game turned dramatically in the second half when Lenoir-Rhyne outscored LMU 8-3. The game was also halted for just over one hour at the 16:57 point of the half due to lightning and heavy rain. L-R came back from the delay and scored the first four goals out of the delay to ice the game.
 
"We really struggled clearing the ball because they dropped back today," Corace said.  
 
Corace heaped praise on the performance of Click.
 
"She played fantastic," said Corace. "I am so proud of her. She did an awesome job today."
 
For Click, Kelly, Amara Moss and Melissa Saganich, Friday's match was the last of their LMU career. With only four seniors graduating, Corace has a strong core of players returning next season.
 
"I'm excited because we made it further than we ever have before," Corace said. "Last year when we lost in the first round the girls resolved not to do that again. Next year we will have more momentum to go further. They now know what they need to do to take the next step."
 
With leading scorer DePaul and All-SAC first teamer Zoe Zervos returning, the nucleus is there for continued progress.
 
"We are really excited about the future," Corace said. "We have a really good group coming back and they are workhorses."
 
Lenoir-Rhyne moves on to Sunday's SAC final to take on regular-season champion Queens University.