The Lindenwood field hockey team competed tough on both sides of the ball against ECAC-rival Limestone on Sunday, but fell short by a final score of 4-2.
 
The Lady Lions committed much more time playing defense than usual during the first half due to the Saints' aggressive offense. This forced Skylar Starbeck to play on her toes at goalie as she was consistently being double-teamed by the Saints' forwards. She kept the Saints off the board at the 25:27 mark when the Saints' attacker shot towards the right side of the goal and Starbeck dove to bat away the ball barely.
 
Two minutes later, the Saints applied more pressure on Starbeck as three of them crowded the goal and shot twice. However, Starbeck extended both arms to register two more impressive saves for the Lady Lions. Unfortunately, the Saints got on the board with a goal at the 21:39 mark from Jette Dieckmann on the left wing after they triple-teamed Starbeck.
 
The Lady Lions nearly registered a goal at the 12-minute mark when Megan Pranger launched a shot towards the lower left side of the goal but Tabria Cochran of Limestone did the splits to kick the ball away from her tip-toes.
 
Maria Patterson of the Saints stole the ball at midfield and sprinted down-field unguarded towards the left side of the goal. She shot once that Starbeck caught high with her glove, but Patterson reacted quickly by shooting right of Starbeck for the Saints' third goal of the game.
 
After the referees issued a green card on Limestone at the 4:23 mark, the Lady Lions almost converted the one-player down opportunity with two attempted shots, but they were blocked. Neither team got much of a good look to score again for the half as the Saints led 3-0.
 
In the second half, Starbeck held the fort down as she charged at Limestone's Maria Patterson to stop her from shooting on the right wing at the 42:05 mark.
 
Then Lindenwood began to dictate ball control for four straight minutes as they earned four corner attempts and shot three on goal. Thankfully, that long time of possession paid off when Graycen Dave came in for the Lady Lions to take a penalty shot and easily scored at the 51:01 mark.
 
Once again, the referees gave a green card to the Saints with ten minutes remaining in which the Lady Lions nearly scored again. Noor Fons received a pass from Nicole Johnston then slung the ball right at Cochran. Cochran batted the ball away towards her teammate.
 
The Saints attempted to tack on a fifth goal, but Starbeck stopped Remley's fast break that gave the Saints a corner chance. The Saints would not convert on the opportunity as Amelia Rodriguez and Johnston stood as a wall in front of the goal.
 
Fons put the Lady Lions back on the board after she scored easily on the lower right side of the goal thanks to a pass from Tara Robben. Unforuntately for the Lady Lions, they could not get any more clear looks at goal to ice the game for Limestone.  
 
Although Limestone won the game, the Lady Lions recorded more shots-on-goal with 12 to the Saints' 10. Robben shot seven times with five being on-goal for the game while Bridget Hoogendijk had the second-most on the team with three total shots. The Lady Lions also finished with the edge in corner attempts, registering 16 to Limestone's 13.
 
After the loss, the Lady Lions fall to 6-2 and 2-1 in the ECAC while the Saints improve to 6-4 and 3-1 in the ECAC. The Lady Lions take a few days off before traveling to Louisville, Ky. on Saturday, October 8 to take on Bellarmine in another ECAC showdown. The game will start at 11 am.