Maryville, TN - Lincoln Memorial women's lacrosse falls in a close battle to the Lee University Flames Thursday evening 12-14. 

The Railsplitters got things going in the first quarter as Josie Tinnerello scored first with 14:02 remaining, followed by a Flames goal with 10:03 remaining to even the match back up. The back-and-forth scoring began as LMU got back the lead thanks to Tinnerello's second goal, unassisted, with 8:36 remaining. Lee evened up the match once again with 7:24 remaining. Lee got their first lead of the game with 5:49 remaining, and extended it 20 seconds later with another goal with 5:24 remaining. The Flames run continued as they added another goal to the scoreboard with 4:09 remaining. The Railsplitters shortened the deficit with 1:12 remaining with a goal from Abby Durkin as Briana Martinez tallied the assist, making the score 3-5 at the end of the first with the Flames having the lead. 

Scoring did not begin until nearly five minutes into the second quarter as Lee scored four more goals: with 11:50 remaining, 9:49 remaining, 8:20 remaining, and 7:55 remaining to make the score 3-9. Lincoln Memorial's first goal of the quarter came from Ruby Copeland with 7:24 remaining, with Martinez adding another assist to the box score. Durkin recorded her second goal of the match with 4:12 remaining, with Copeland getting the assist. Tinnerello would then score two more goals before the end of the quarter, the first with 3:54 remaining, assisted by Durkin, and the second with 0:11 remaining, assisted by Durkin, to make the score 7-9 going into halftime. 

The Flames would extend their lead again in the third as they scored one goal with 11:18 remaining, another goal with 9:09 remaining, and one more with 5:52 remaining. Martinez would put the Railsplitters on the board for the third quarter with 5:25 remaining, with Durkin registering the assist. Lee would get the last say in the third as they add another goal with 1:15 remaining to give them the 8-13 lead going into the final frame. 

Like the third, the Flames would begin the scoring with 11:41 remaining, followed by a Martinez goal with 10:40 remaining (assisted by Copeland) to decrease the scoring margin. LMU would decrease the deficit by three goals as the team rallied offensively: the first by Tinnerello, with Ryan Smith tallying the assist, with 6:47 remaining, the second by Martinez with 3:28 remaining, and the third by Naomi Spangler with 3:14 remaining. Despite the late offensive push by the Railsplitters, Lee took the victory 12-14. 

Martinez and Tinnerello both led the Railsplitters in points with 5, with Martinez registering with 3 goals and 2 assists and Tinnerello adding 5 goals.  Durkin and Copeland followed with 4 points, as Copeland tallied 1 goal and 3 assists and Durkin recording 2 goals and 2 assists. Spangler (1 goal) and Smith (1 assist) finished the match with 1 point each. 

Tinnerello led in shots with 8 while also leading in shots on goal with 6. Mary Kostus was the team-leader in ground balls with 4 and cause turnovers with 3, and Spangler led the team with 4 draw controls. Both goalkeepers Emily Mirabile and Jovie Favati earned time in goal as Mirabile recorded 3 saves and Favati made 9. 

With the loss, the Railsplitters drop to 4-3 and the Flames improve to 4-4. 

The team will play their first conference match on Saturday, March 7th, as they host the Catawba Indians at 4pm.