No. 3 Winthrop Upends No. 2 Longwood, Advances to Title Match
A strong defensive effort and a 5-0 second-half run lifted the third-seeded Winthrop lacrosse team to a 12-9 upset victory over the second-seeded Longwood Lancers Friday in the semifinals of the Big South lacrosse tournament.
The Eagles advance to the championship match and will face the top-seeded High Point Panthers Sunday at 2 p.m. in High Point.
Winthrop's record improves to 8-10 on the season while the Lancers close their campaign at 8-9.
The first half was a low-scoring, back-and-forth affair. Winthrop jumped on the board just over a minute into the contest from the stick of
Ellie Marindin. Longwood grabbed the next two goals to go up 2-1 with 20:44 on the clock and didn't trail for the next 12 minutes as the two sides traded four goals.
Winthrop regained the lead with two tallies in less than two minutes, going up 5-4 with 6:16 remaining in the half. The Lancers were able to tie the game with only 16 seconds remaining to go into the half tied 5-5.
The Eagles came out in the second half, scoring the first two goals of the period to go up 7-5. Longwood pulled back within one before Winthrop scored five straight over a nearly nine-minute span to take a 12-6 lead with 10:26 remaining. While the Eagles didn't tally another goal, their defense limited Longwood to only three goals en route to the 12-9 victory.
Mia Creighton led the Eagles with three goals and two assists and had another waived off at the buzzer.
Lauren Morris,
Savanah Paton and
Marindin each tallied two goals while
McKenna Blick scored once and added three assists.
Alaina Girani finished the nine saves in the victory.