Demorest, GA - The Piedmont College women's lacrosse team refuses to lose in 2015 winning their 12th straight contest to continue their already program-best start knocking off in-state foe Berry College 22-7 earlier today.
The Lady Lions now move to 12-0 on the season picking up their sixth win on the road in 2015 having won three of those six road contests by at least 15 goals or more. Since a 2-goal victory over Meredith back on March 21, Piedmont has posted a margin of victory of 15 goals or more in its last three games.
Piedmont was led in the scoring department by a pair of juniors in
MAGGIE MCDANIEL and
MCKYNSEY DOUGLAS who scored a half dozen each to continue their spectular 2015 seasons. Douglas remains in the top five, as she has all season, of the USA South scoring leaders trailing Greensboro's Kirstin Norris by 14 while McDaniel is tops in the league's assist column just two away from 40 this season.
McDaniel is 2nd in the nation with her 39 assists as well and is a part of the nation's 8th ranked scoring offense as Piedmont leads of NCAA Division III in total points with nearly 300 this season as a team. McDaniel is also now just five goals away from 100 in her career as Piedmont continues to dominate offensively.
Berry started the scoring in today's contest holding Piedmont to 0's on the board for more than seven minutes to start the contest, one of the largest such droughts for PC to start a contest in 2015. However, after Berry's goal at the 23:14 mark kicked things off, Piedmont rattled off six unaswered to squash the hopes of the upset-minded Vikings at Ford Field.
It was Douglas scoring on an unassisted effort less than 20 seconds after Berry scored to make it 1-0 that tied things up, and Piedmont would take the lead for the first time just over 30 seconds later as McDaniel assisted on a
ALEXIS NARDUCCI goal for the 2-1 advantage. Narducci finished the night with a pair of goals as she has scored multiple goals in eight of the 11 games she has played this season.
Down 6-1 after 20 minutes gone in the first, Berry got a goal back with Kim Fischer scoring before the Lady Lions poured in four straight to answer as the Lady Lions led 9-3 at the midway break.
The foot did not come off the gas pedal in the second half either as the Lady Lions scored the first eight goals of the final half to take a commanding 17-3 lead over the homestanding Vikings of Berry. Offensively, the pace slowed down in the final 12 minutes as the two combined for just nine goals to end but the decision had already been handed to PC who walked away a 15-goal winner over the Vikings.
Two freshmen added three goals each in
CAITLIN O'BRIEN and
ASHLEY BRUNNER while McDaniel was the assists leader on the night with four. Berry falls to 7-4 with the loss having two straight decisions after winning seven in a row earlier this year.
BLAKE FORREST gets the win in the cage for PC, her 11th of the season as a starter, as her goals against average for the season is ranked 2nd best in the nation. Forrest is also ranked 8th in Division III in save percentage as well.
Piedmont will get back on the field in front of its home fans this coming Friday when the Lady Lions take the turf at Walker Athletic Complex to face Centre College, another Southern Athletic Association foe. Piedmont faces three straight SAA foes to end the 2015 regular season starting with today's contest vs. Berry.
The April 3 contest vs. Centre College is set for an early start as the opening draw will take place at 12:00 pm with live coverage being provided, both stats and video, by the Mane Event Broadcasting Network.