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ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - The NC Wesleyan College women's lacrosse team dropped their USA South conference game to defending champion Meredith College 24-1 at home on Friday.
The Bishops played undermanned in this game due to injuries and illness, but put up a good fight over the first few minutes of the game hanging with the Angels.
After MC scored the first two goals, Wesleyan came back with a goal of their own from sophomore attacker Ayanna Walker. Unfortunately, the goal was disallowed due to her stepping into the crease.
However, Wesleyan (2-4, 0-1 USA South) did get on the board in the 5th minute of the game as senior attacker Samantha Valeros scored her first goal of the season as she won the draw control and sprinted directly towards the net for the score to get NCWC within 3-1. Unfortunately for the Bishops, that would be the last goal they could muster as they would continue to win draw controls, but could not penetrate the Meredith defense as they played a woman down all game.
Meredith (3-1, 2-0 USA South) would score five more goals in the first half to lead 8-1 forcing Wesleyan into a goalie change after an injury to freshman G Devin Bautz. Meredith would then take a 17-1 lead at the break.
MC then scored just 7 goals in the second half off Bishop reserve goalie Brionna Beamon. Beamon would go on to make 5 saves on 21 shots while Bautz made 6 saves on 14 shots over her nine minutes of action.
Leading in draw controls for the Bishops was freshman midfielder Blaire Harley with seven while junior midfielder Madeline Graham won three draws and recorded two ground balls. Also grabbing two ground balls were defender Deja Hartman and goalie Beamon while Graham, Hartman, Walker, Valeros and Ken'dreall Copeland all forced MC turnovers.
PC 16, NCWC 1
The Lady Bishops then returned to action on Sunday when they hosted West Division foe Piedmont College (Ga.) but fell 16-1.
Both teams got off to a sluggish start in this one with Piedmont leading just 2-0 after the first 10 minutes before Wesleyan got on the board right after that mark with a goal from midfielder Blaire Harley to make it 2-1. PC would then add 7 more goals in the half to take a 9-1 lead at the break.
Wesleyan would then get a few more shots off in the second half with Graham having multiple opportunities for a goal but came up short as PC's goalie made some good saves.
Wesleyan's first-time goalie Beamon then had a nice game making 14 saves on 30 shots while Harley led the way in draws winning five while Graham won two and senior attacker Ken'dreall Copeland winning three of her own. Leading in ground ball pickups with senior defender Deja Hartman with five while Graham, Valeros, and junior defender Karlee Bjurstrom all recorded three ground balls. Valeros also caused three Lion turnovers.
Piedmont improves to 4-5 while NCWC falls to 2-5. The Lady Bishops next return to action on Thursday for their first road game as they head down south to face Methodist at 4pm.