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Women's Lacrosse opens season with 13-6 win over Midland
By Matt Green
ROME -- Katie Ott scored three goals and Amelia Wiggins, Avery Armstrong and Bianca Rojas added two goals apiece as Shorter's women's lacrosse squad opened the 2012 season with a 13-6 win over visiting Midland University in a National Women's Lacrosse League matchup.
Shorter (1-0, 1-0 NWLL) raced out to a 10-0 halftime lead and cruised home for the win as Midland (0-3, 0-3), one of four new programs to join the NWLL this season, couldn't dig itself out of the early hole.
The Lady Hawks held a 30-19 advantage in shots and a 53-31 edge in ground balls. Armstrong picked up a team-high eight ground balls for Shorter, which also forced 25 Midland turnovers.
Taylor Moody, making her first start for Shorter, made six saves and surrendered three goals in 51:35 of work in goal. Moody didn't give up a goal until the 24:42 mark of the second half, well after Shorter had established a 10-goal cushion.
Wiggins and Whitney Dixe, last year's leading goal scorer in the NWLL, scored 14 seconds apart to put Shorter up 2-0 less than three minutes into the game. Seven different Lady Hawks scored in the first half and Desiree Watson-Isom's goal with 17 seconds remaining in the opening frame put Shorter up 10-0 at the break.
Midland's Brittnee Devries scored the first goal of the second half to get Midland on the board, but Ott responded for Shorter with 19:27 to go to make the score 11-1. Midland did get three straight goals from Breanna McLaughlin late in the second half to pull within 12-5, but Ott's third and final goal of the game with 5:32 left ended that run.
Amber Hicks scored her first career goal for Shorter after sitting out the entire 2011 season with a knee injury. Rachel Skinner also scored once and was one of eight players to find the back of the net for the Lady Hawks.
Shorter returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 25 when it hosts Newberry at 2 pm on Ben Brady Field.
