LAKELAND, FL – In a top-10 women’s lacrosse battle, #2 Florida Southern hung the first blemish on #6 Pace’s resume, outlasting the Setters 14-12 on Sunday afternoon on sunny Berend Field.

The Moccasins outscored the Setters 6-1 in the second quarter, in what was otherwise a very tightly contested matchup. Pace falls to 2-1 while Florida Southern remains an unbeaten 7-0, with four of those wins against ranked opponents.

A great back-and-forth first quarter saw the Setters take a quick lead 51 seconds into the game when graduate student Aleya Corretjer rebounded a free position shot and made an acrobatic score.

The Moccasins tied things up one minute later with a Jackie Stoller goal, one of her game-high five on the day, but the Setters were quick to respond as well.

Just 39 seconds later, Angelina Porcello, with a defender all over her trying to force the junior left, made a hard drive to the right and smashed a goal past the goalkeeper, reclaiming the Pace lead, 2-1.

Once again Florida Southern managed to respond in kind, evening the game up when Abby McFerren found the back of the net from a Madison Tare assist.

Tare, who assisted on both of her team’s first two goals, then made an awesome individual effort to get around two defenders and give Florida Southern their first lead of the game, 3-2, with six minutes remaining in the quarter.

Corretjer, moving right to left, hurled a tough left-handed shot to tie the game 3-3 at the end of the first.

After five scoreless second quarter minutes, a Pace foul gave the Moccasins a man-up advantage, which allowed Florida Southern to to expose the defense and take a 4-3 lead off another Stoller goal.

A beautiful pass from Lizzie Lynch from behind the cage allowed Ellie Griffin to grab the ball out of the sky and score a low shot through a sea of sticks, making the game 5-3.

Assuming the momentum, Stoller then found Hailey Daleo for a quick catch and shoot, putting Florida Southern up by three in the span of just two minutes.

Pace senior Jolie Urraro cut the deficit to two on a sweet 1-v-1 in which she got to the top side and worked her way through for an unassisted goal.

The floodgates would open in the final three minutes of the half, however, as the Moccasins would score three times in as many minutes, to take a 9-4 lead into the break. Daleo, Gianna Murphy, and Tare were the goal scorers.

The two teams would trade tallies in the second half, with the Setters cutting it to 12-10 half-way through the final quarter, but the Moccasins retaliated with two goals of their own, effectively ending the game. Pace added two goals in garbage time for a 14-12 final score.

Draw controls proved a vital component of the final result, as the Setters won the first three faceoffs of the game, but lost 18 of 27 the rest of the way.

Florida Southern goalie Rylie Rittberg made 11 saves in her fifth win in net of the season. The Pace goalies did not register a save in the second half.

Porcello and freshman Katie Long led the team with three goals apiece. Delilah Doyle was first in ground balls (3) and caused turnovers (4). Porcello and Julianna Febbraio also scooped three ground balls.

Pace remains in Florida to take on #4 Tampa on Wednesday.