AVE MARIA, Fla. --- A flurry of scores early gave Life U a lead they would not relinquish, Brianna Freeman and Maria Arvizu both recording hat tricks to lead the Running Eagles to a 15-10 Mid-South Conference victory at Ave Maria in women's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon.

It took nearly five minutes to see the first score of the game, Life U (13-4, 3-2 MSC) striking first with a Ortiz goal before Ave Maria (5-9, 1-4 MSC) answered to tie things up at 1-1 with nine minutes to go in the first. The Running Eagles ran off five unanswered goals to end the first, Arvizu and Freeman both providing a pair and Leanne Windon one of her own to take a commanding 6-1 lead into the second. Things got closer in the second, Ave Maria answering the majority of Life U scores as the Running Eagles slightly added to their lead, expanding to 9-3.

Three Life U goals to start the second half, Nina Sutton and Peyton Sanders getting in on the scoring, saw the Running Eagles knocking on the door of pushing the game into running clock at 12-3 with 8:03 left in the third. Two Gyrenes' scores followed by another late Freeman goal saw the Life U lead sit at 13-5 headed into the final 15 minutes of play. Ave Maria opened the final frame with four consecutive scores, to pull within five at 13-9 with just over nine minutes to play. Arvizu scored twice the rest of the way to help buoy the team to the 15-10 victory.

Arvizu stood as the game's top scorer, compiling five goals to go with a team-high six draw controls. Freeman upped her offensive production though with four goals and three assists, taking part in nearly half the team's scores. Ortiz was the only other multi-goal scorer, recording two goals and an assist. Windon had herself a day defensively, knocking away six balls, while picking up seven ground balls.

Life U held a strong lead in shots, caused turnovers, and ground balls. The Running Eagles commanded a 38-22 edge in shots, 28-15 in caused turnovers, and 31-22 in ground balls. Life continues to come up on the short side on the draw, trailing the Gyrenes 16-13 in the category, Ave Maria also leading saves 15-6.

The Running Eagles return home for their regular season finale and  Senior Day game against (RV) Webber International this Thursday, April 14th at 3:30 PM.