MIAMI GARDENS, FLA.- The Malone University Women's Lacrosse team looked to bounce back after suffering their first defeat of the season earlier in the week. Despite a sizzling start, the Pioneers fizzled out and fell to St. Thomas University (Fla.) in overtime via a 12-13 final.
Malone come out on fire as they rattled off the first five goals of the contest.
Abbey Burns started the run less than a minute into the game. She was succeeded by
Jorjia Meza,
Cam English, and
Meg Ridgway who all found the net for the Pioneers. Up by four less than five minutes into the contest, Meza looked to extend Malone's lead and did so on a feed from English. The Bobcats stopped the bleeding with their first goal of the match but Burns countered shortly after to put Malone up 6-1. St. Thomas scored as time expired to cut the deficit to four.
The second quarter was continued dominance for Malone as English, Burns, Ridgway, and
Alexa Wozniak fired a quartet of Pioneer goals to leave Malone up 10-2. The Bobcats flushed home a pair of goals to leave themselves down six heading into the halftime break.
The second half was a different story as the Bobcats came out ferocious. St. Thomas outscored the Pioneers 3-0 in the third quarter to leave things at 10-7. English stopped the onslaught with her third of the game. St. Thomas answered with two more and then Burns countered yet again to put Malone back up 12-9. St. Thomas rifled a trio of goals in ninety seconds to tie the game at twelve a piece.
The rest of the quarter remained scoreless and the game went into overtime. In OT, despite Malone's best efforts, the Bobcats carried their second half momentum into a victory as the Pioneers fell 12-13.
English led Malone with three goals and a pair of assists. Burns had four goals of her own.
Sommer-Jo Grieser led the Pioneers with eight saves while recording a career high seventy-one minutes between the pipes.
This concluded the Pioneers Florida Spring Break trip and they will head back north as they take on The University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia on Tuesday, March 11th at 12:00 P.M.
