The Lenoir-Rhyne Women’s Lacrosse Team mounted a furious fourth quarter comeback to erase a 10-6 deficit before falling by a final score of 10-9 in the season opener on Thursday afternoon to Rollins. The Bears narrowly missed a third all-time victory over a ranked program but the No. 10 Tars held on for the victory.

The Tars scored the first three goals of the day and five of the first six before LR’s Ellie Campbell cut the advantage to 5-2 with 7:48 left in the second quarter. Rollins would score twice more to make it a 7-2 advantage with 1:16 left. LR would close the half with a goal from Jolan Morey with 19 seconds left in the half to take a little momentum into the break.

The visitors made it 8-3 just under six minutes into the second half and were up 10-5 until the Bears mounted a comeback. Campbell scored with 13 seconds left in the third quarter and LR scored three times in the fourth quarter to cut it to 10-9. Emilee Foxall’s goal with 2:54 cut the lead to one but the Tars would secure the ensuing draw and were aided by a yellow card with six seconds left in their possession that reset the play clock. The Tars would control the ball for the final 2:54 to seal the win.

The star for LR was goalie Teanna Sieben who tied her own program record with 19 saves and kept Rollins off the scoreboard for the last 17:22. Campbell netted a hat trick and Chloe Christensen had two goals and seven draw controls. Kaitlyn Cavanaugh had a goal and an assist for LR and Isabelle Dunnam had three caused turnovers.

LR has never beaten Rollins in 13 attempts but this is the second time LR has lost by one goal to the Tars. LR dropped a 13-12 decision back in 2015. As a result, Rollins has won all nine matchups in Hickory.

This was the 107th all-time home game for the Bears and the 94th career game for head coach Carlee Buck. This is one of six home games to start the season for LR, the second time in the past four years that LR has opened with six straight at home. The Bears did the same in 2020 before COVID shut the season down prematurely.

The Bears were playing without Suzy Smith who is ninth in program history in career goals and career points.

Lenoir-Rhyne is 0-1 on the season. The Bears will stay at home and take on Lee on Sunday at 2 p.m.