The Belmont Abbey women's lacrosse team fell 17-6 to the visiting 11th-ranked Limestone Saints this afternoon at Alumni Field in a Conference Carolinas matchup. The Saints improve to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in Conference Carolinas, while the Abbey drops to 6-6 overall and 2-3 in league play.

Limestone scored the first two goals of the game in the opening 3:32, but the Crusaders quickly tied the game as they responded with goals from Rebecca Luca and MacKenzie Miller. Those two goals came 18 seconds apart to bring the Crusaders level.

From there, however, the Saints scored five unanswered goals to take a lead they would never lose again, pulling ahead 7-2. Rebecca Stromberg halted the momentum at the 11:04 mark, but the Saints responded with their second five unanswered goals run to close the half, surging ahead 12-3 at the break.

Katelin Glass opened the second half with her first goal of the game, a free position shot 2:06 into the period, but Limestone answered with four straight markers to increase its lead to 16-4. Katy Connery found the back of the net on a free position shot with 5:49 left. Limestone answered exactly 1:49 later, and Luca scored her second goal of the game with 1:25 showing to close the scoring.

Limestone outshot the Abbey 27-11 but the Crusaders won the draw control battle 16-9. Connery won five draw controls and scooped up five ground balls. The senior co-captain is the NCAA Division II leader in ground balls. Kassie Easter also won five draw controls and collected three ground balls.

Reilly Johnson stopped five shots while Danielle Ruffalo made one save.

The Crusaders will now take off for Easter as they will return to the field next Wednesday when hosting Lenoir-Rhyne.