Trailing 10-3 at the half, the Belmont Abbey women's lacrosse team outscored Pfeiffer 9-6 in the second half, cutting the deficit to as few as two goals, but the Lady Falcons outscored the Abbey 4-2 in the final 11 minutes to pull away with a 16-12 win this afternoon in the season opener for both teams. Today's game was classified as a non-conference game.

Abbey sophomore Susan Killeavy led the Abbey with five goals, all coming in the second half, on nine shots. Laura Dowd, Kristyn Kinsey and Elyse Mohn all added a pair and Rebecca Diggs found the back of the net once. Diggs, Dowd and Rachael Schrader all had one assist.

Alex Cook and Natalie Marvin both led the Lady Falcons with three goals, while Rachel Hebberd, Katherine Athens, Jessica Moulton and Sarah Hebberd all had two. Shannon Bonnel and Liz Melesh both had one. Cook handed out three assists, while Rachel Hebberd had two. Athens and Marvin both had one.

Pfeiffer outshot the Crusaders 31-27 as it built a 10-3 halftime lead. Ten of the Lady Falcons 18 first half shots found the back of the net as they scored the first two goals of the game. Kinsey put the Abbey on the board at the 21:56 mark. Both teams traded goals after that, and Pfeiffer pulled away by scoring the next four goals to open up a 7-2 cushion.

Mohn made it 7-3 with a free position score at the 5:20 mark, but Pfeiffer answered with three unanswered goals in the final 5:11 to claim a 10-3 halftime lead.

The second half saw the Abbey score seven of the first nine goals of the half to slice its deficit to 12-10. Killeavy scored three of her five goals in that run, the last coming on a free position shot at the 13:59 mark to cut the Pfeiffer advantage to 12-10. Dowd scored twice in that run, while Kinsey and Diggs both scored one each.

After a timeout, the Falcons regrouped and scored four unanswered goals, one each from Rachel and Sarah Hebberd and two from Cook, the last on a free position tally, to widen the gap to 16-10. Killeavy scored the final two goals of the game.

Abbey goalkeeper Tory Morgan collected nine saves and a team-high six ground balls. Pfeiffer goalkeeper Kaitlin Booth made 12 saves, nine in the first half, with five ground balls. The Abbey won the ground ball battle 22-21. Both teams scored on three position shots and Pfeiffer held an 18-12 edge on draw controls.