SAVANNAH, Ga. --- The Life University women's lacrosse team held the lead late in the SUN Conference semifinals against two-seed SCAD-Savannah, but were not able to close the deal, falling behind late to suffer a 14-12 loss Friday afternoon.
Life U (9-5) outdid SCAD (9-5) in nearly every statistical category despite coming up on the short side of the scoreboard. The Running Eagles held the advantage in shots (30-24), turnovers given up (19-26), and ground balls collected (26-22). The only place that the Bees saw a decided edge was in saves where they led 12-5. Individually, SUN Offensive Player of the Year,
Maria Arvizu, provided her usual gameplay, being felt in all aspects of the game with three goals, a game high seven ground balls, and two caused turnovers. Her running mate in the midfield,
Lexi Santiago also made her presence felt, the sophomore leading the team with four goals to go with three ground balls and two caused turnovers.
The first half started poorly for the Running Eagles, a last second goal in the first quarter by
Peyton Sanders seeing Life U go into the second quarter in a 3-1 hole. The team responded well in the second quarter though, Arvizu trading goals with the Bees, before a 3-0 run that saw goals from Sanders,
Lacy Legaspi, and Santiago saw Life U take its first lead of the game 6-5 with 38 seconds to go in the half. SCAD snuck in a last second goal of their own to see the teams enter the break tied at 6-6.
Neither team could create separation in the third quarter, both defenses doing a good job of corralling the other team. The squads traded goals back-and-forth to see the final 15 minutes start with the game tied at 8-8. The Running Eagles seemed poised to pull away for the win at the eight minute mark as they had pulled away to take a 12-9 lead following scores by Santiago, Arvizu, and
Alyssa Curto. Two minutes later, the Bees started their comeback, mounting five straight goals to take the victory 14-12.
With the conference tournament loss, Life U will now need to turn their attention to the NAIA Women's Lacrosse selection show to see if they will return to post season play. The national tournament returns to Southfield, Michigan again this year with play set to start on May 3rd.
