The No. 3 Lindenwood women's lacrosse team defeated No. 1 Florida Southern at Hunter Stadium in St. Charles, Mo. in a rematch of the 2016 National Semifinal game. A Lindenwood lacrosse record crowd of 642 was in attendance to witness the Lady Lions prevail by a final score of 14-11.
Rachel Benzing opened the scoring just 1:50 into the first half, giving Lindenwood a lead that it would not relinquish for the remainder of the afternoon.
Maria Johnson picked up the assist on the first goal of the game.
Less than two minutes later,
Morgan Judd found the back of the cage with an unassisted score to put the Lady Lions in front by two goals.
Florida Southern scored its first goal of the game with 22:50 remaining in the first half, bringing the score to 2-1 in favor of Lindenwood.
The Lady Lions responded by scoring four of the next five goals over a 16:58 stretch, building a 6-3 lead.
Sophie Buelow, Judd,
Cassie Stucklen, and
Hannah Doughty tallied the Lindenwood scores during the spurt.
Florida Southern's Meghan O'Brien scored twice in a 43-second span to draw the Mocs within two goals of the Lady Lion lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first half.
Benzing and Buelow would each score before the end of the half, as Lindenwood built itself an 8-4 lead heading into halftime.
Dani Bursinger scored first to begin the second half, bringing the score to 8-5.
Judd and Buelow responded for Lindenwood, each converting on free-position attempts to help the Lady Lions take a 10-5 lead.
Florida Southern and Lindenwood would alternate the next six goals, as the Lady Lions maintained their five-goal lead.
Carly Fedorowski, Benzing, and Doughty were the goal scorers for Lindenwood during the back-and-forth action, as the score moved to 13-8 in favor of the Lady Lions with 2:17 remaining in the second half.
After Fedorowski's second goal of the afternoon with 1:50 showing on the clock, Lindenwood moved ahead by six goals, 14-8. Florida Southern attempted a late-rally, scoring three goals in the final 88 seconds, but time ran out on the top-ranked Moc's as the game ended with a 14-11 final.
Rachel Ortell made her third-consecutive start in goal for Lindenwood to open the season. Ortell made five saves, while causing two Florida Southern turnovers.
Benzing led Lindenwood offensively, finishing the game with a career-high eight-point performance. Benzing scored three goals, while dishing out five assists.
Buelow and Judd each notched three goals, while Doughty and Fedorowski scored twice.
Lindenwood finished the afternoon with 24 shots on goal, led by Buelow's five.
Erin Abbott anchored the Lady Lion's defensive effort, causing a game-high four turnovers.
Molly Beckham caused three turnovers.
Florida Southern secured 17 of the 27 draw controls. Abbott had a team-leading five draw controls, while teammate
Shannon Modl had four.
The victory over No. 1 Florida Southern is the first time in program history that Lindenwood has defeated a top-ranked opponent.
With the win, Lindenwood improves to 3-0 to begin the 2017 season. Florida Southern moves to 2-2 with the loss. The Lady Lions will return to action on March 7 for a 7:00 p.m. RMAC contest with the Regis Rangers. Lindenwood's first conference game of the season will be played at Hunter Stadium.
