Harrogate, TN – Lincoln Memorial women's lacrosse falls to the Tusculum Pioneers Wednesday evening 16-17.
The Pioneers put a goal on the board first as they scored with 12:40 remaining, followed by a Railsplitter three-goal scoring run.
Josie Tinnerello began the run with 12:04 remaining, with
Ruby Copeland earning the assist.
Briana Martinez followed almost 20 seconds later as she scored off of Copeland, and Tinnerello recorded the brace from an
Abby Durkin assist with 11:10 remaining. With Tusculum gaining the lead with four goals for the next six minutes, LMU took back the lead to end the quarter with another three-goal scoring run, beginning with Durkin scoring her first of the evening with Tinnerello getting her first assist with 4:17 remaining. Tinnerello followed with another goal of her own with 3:32 remaining, and
Ryan Smith got her first of the day off of a Durkin assist with 1:16 remaining to give the Railsplitters the 6-5 lead going into the second.
Like the first, the Pioneers scored first with 12:09 remaining, then Lincoln Memorial scored a pair of goals with 11:52 remaining by Smith and 11:17 remaining by
Jaiden Jaynes off of Tinnerello. Tusculum decreased the deficit to one with 11:10 remaining, but LMU responded two minutes later with 8:47 remaining to keep the lead of two goals, thanks to Tinnerello scoring off of a Jaynes assist. The back-and-forth scoring continued with Tusculum scoring with 6:14 remaining, then Jaynes had the final say in the second with 3:44 remaining, with Copeland earning the assist. The Railsplitters went into halftime with the 10-8 lead.
The third was mostly Tusculum, with them scoring four goals within the first six minutes. LMU's first goal of the quarter came from Jaynes with 8:22 remaining, and then the Pioneers followed up with another four-goal run until Lincoln Memorial scored the last goal of the third with 0:45 remaining by Copeland, giving Tusculum the 12-16 lead going into the final frame.
The Railsplitters increased the momentum in the fourth, as Copeland scored off of Martinez 15 seconds into the quarter, but Tusculum quickly responded with a goal with 13:45 remaining. LMU then attempted to regain the lead as Copeland scored off of Durkin with 10:20 remaining, Jaynes scored an unassisted goal with 0:43 remaining, and Copeland scored off of Durkin again with 24 seconds remaining. Despite the late offensive push from Lincoln Memorial, Tusculum took the victory 16-17.
Copeland led in points on the day for four goals and three assists, followed by Tinnerello with four goals and two assists for six points. Durkin and Jaynes both finished with five points, as Durkin recorded one goal and four assists and Jaynes registered four goals and one assist. Martinez and Smith rounded out the points with two each, with Martinez adding a goal and an assist and Smith scoring two goals.
As a team, Lincoln Memorial took 32 shots, with 25 being on goal, 18 ground balls, 12 saves, 8 successful clears, and 19 draw controls.
With the loss, LMU drops to 6-8 overall and 2-5 in conference play, and Tusculum improves to 8-6 overall and 4-3 in the SAC.
The team's next match will be on Saturday, April 11 as they host the Newberry Wolves at 12 pm, which is also Senior Day.
