SE Tennessee News

The Lee women's lacrosse team gave the crowd at the Ray Conn Sports Complex plenty to cheer about in its home opener on a picture-perfect Wednesday night. The Lady Flames started fast and never looked back in firing past Mars Hill, 20-3.

From the opening draw the contest belonged to the Lady Flames. Maggie Luzier and Brittney White led the offensive explosion with four goals each. Callie Curtis and Caleigh Kenna struck for three scores and Megan Trout added two. Noelle Harrington dished off three assists and Maggie Luzier added three assists to go along with her four goals for a game-high seven points.

The Lady Flames held a commanding 7-1 lead after the first and took a 12-2 advantage into the halftime break. Mars Hill scored the first goal of the second half with 13:03 left in the third but from there Lee would go on a 8-0 run to close out the dominating win.

"I thought everybody came out hungry tonight and we possessed the ball and controlled it from the start, so we were able to run our sets offensively and get off to an early lead," said Lee head coach Derrel Martin. "We've got some strong freshmen and transfers to go along with quality returners, so we really like the balance of this team. We've also got three left handers on offense for the first time and that really helps give us some different looks and can be tough to defend."

Lee out shot the Lions, 32-6 thanks to controlling possession with a 21-6 advantage in draws. The Lady Flames put a remarkable 30 of their 32 shots on goal. Lee went a perfect 10 for 10 on clears while Mars Hill struggled in that category to the tune of just 8 of 17.

The Lady Flames used three different goalies in the victory. Kaleigh Bernard started and worked the first half to earn the victory. She allowed just two goals and had a pair of saves. Caleigh Smith was called on to start the second half and gave up just one goal in 23:54 before Emma Martinez finished the final 6:06 in goal for Lee.

"I think we have been coming together as a team and worked hard throughout the game," said Kenna. "I just try and make the right play with the 90 seconds that we have. It's not about one player it's about the team. It was so great to play in front of our home crowd and we really fed off their energy tonight after three long road trips to start the year."

The Lady Flames move to 4-0 on the season after receiving votes in the latest IWCLA Top 25 poll this week. The Lions fall to an even 2-2 on the year. The two teams were meeting for the second time overall. The Lady Flames won the previous meeting 20-10 in 2020.

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