ROCK HILL, SC - In a showdown of conference unbeatens, the Winthrop lacrosse team will host the Liberty Flames Sunday afternoon at 11 a.m. with the top seed and conference-tournament hosting rights on the line.
The winner of Sunday's contest will earn at least a share of the conference regular-season title and will play host to the Big South tournament semifinals and championship May 1 and 3.
Sunday's game will also be senior day for the Winthrop Eagles as the team recognizes its two seniors, Alyssa Blevins and Jenna Kasmarik.
Winthrop enters Sunday's contest with a 13-2 overall record and 5-0 Big South mark. The Eagles are riding their second six-game winning streak of the year. Liberty, also 5-0 in the conference, has a 7-8 overall record and a five-game win streak.
The Eagles are coming off a dominant performance against Longwood on Friday afternoon, downing the Lancers 15-4. Winthrop was led by freshman Katie Clark who finished with five points on four goals and one assist while fellow freshman Kristen Shriver also scored four goals.
Abigail Blevins, Shannon Gallagher and Jenna Kasmarik each netted two while Logan McCarthy grabbed one. Freshman goalie Alaina Girani continued to be impressive in net, making seven saves to pick up the victory.
Winthrop had an outstanding start, going up 9-0 with 11:20 left in the first half. The Eagles were up 10-1 with just over seven minutes left, but Longwood grabbed the final two goals of the half to trail 10-3 at the break. In the second half, Longwood scored the first goal eight minutes in, but didn't score again. The Eagles tallied five goals in the second half to reach the 15-4 final.
Liberty is coming off an overtime victory Friday afternoon over the High Point Panthers 16-15. The Flames trailed by two with less than a minute to go but were able to get two goals from freshman Katy Pridemore, the team's top scorer with 59 and 32 seconds to go to tie the game and send it to overtime.
In overtime, Liberty netted a goal in the opening three minutes and then again with 1:45 to play to go up 16-14. High Point grabbed one back with 50 seconds left and had a chance to tie the game with under 30 seconds to play but a free-position attempt clanged off the cross bar and Liberty held on.
Juliann Elmer is the Flames' primary goalie and has recorded all of the decisions this year. Elmer has a .470 save percentage but has allowed more than 13 goals per game.
Following Sunday's contest the Eagles will close out the regular season on the road next Friday, April 24 against the High Point Panthers at 6 p.m. Winthrop will return to Eagle Field on Tuesday, April 28 to host a quarterfinal Big South contest.
