WINGATE, N.C. --- Wingate University defeated Tusculum University 23-7 in South Atlantic Conference women's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Graham Gill Field.
Kendall Wells scored five goals, Annie Plotts had four goals and three assists and Nina Cifolilli had a goal and five assists for the Bulldogs (10-2, 7-2 SAC), who secured the third seed for next week's SAC Women's Lacrosse Championship tournament.
Juliette Cusano led the Pioneers (1-6, 0-6 SAC) with two goals and an assist, Tia Tuininga and Megann McKinney scored two goals apiece and Kylie Marek also scored for the Pioneers, while Kate Pipkin made 14 saves to set the Tusculum career record for saves by a goalkeeper.
Wingate jumped to a 4-0 lead after four minutes before Tusculum got on the board on a goal by Cusano with 25:27 left in the first half. Plotts and McKinney exchanged goals less than a minute apart, then the Bulldogs ran off four more in a row to go up 9-2 with 14:42 left in the first half. Tusculum stopped the run as Tuininga and McKinney brought the Pioneers within 9-4 with 8:09 to play in the half, but Wingate would answer with its fourth 4-0 run of the half to go on top 13-4 at halftime.
Tuininga's second goal of the game just over two minutes into the second half brought the Pioneers within 13-5, but the Bulldogs scored twice in 26 seconds to go ahead 15-5 with 27:10 remaining. The Pioneers would score the next two goals from Marek and Cusano, but Wingate ran off the final eight goals and capped the scoring on Wells' fifth of the match with one second left.
Wingate outshot Tusculum 47-20 in the match and had a 20-10 edge in draw controls. Cusano led the Pioneers with four draw controls while Marek had three, and Eliza Ryan led the Pioneers with six ground balls and three caused turnovers. For Wingate, Plotts had a game-high 10 draw controls and Sierra Street and Abby Burke shared the team lead with three caused turnovers apiece.
Pipkin had nine of her 14 saves in the second half, and finished the season with 340 career saves to break the previous mark of 330 set by Brooke Wagner from 2015-18. Megan Biase played all 60 minutes in goal for Wingate and had nine saves.
Cusano finished her illustrious Tusculum career as the program career leader in goals (163), free position goals (59) and draw controls (246), second in points (185) and caused turnovers (63) and third in ground balls (110). She scored a goal in each of her last 46 games with the Pioneers, a streak that dated back to her freshman season of 2017.
Ryan's six ground balls enabled her to become the fourth player in program history to record 100 career ground balls, as she finished her career with 104. Ryan also ranks third in career caused turnovers (52).
