CLEVELAND, Ga.— Head coach Kayla Bone and the Montreat women's lacrosse team collected their first win of the season in their Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) opener Wednesday night, topping the Truett McConnell University Bears, 18-14. With the victory in Cleveland, Ga., the Cavaliers improved to 1-5 overall and 1-0 in conference action.
 
Grace Wiegand's seventh goal of the year started the scoring just 1:47 into the contest, and Hannah Jarboe's free position strike nearly five minutes later gave the visitors a 2-0 advantage midway through the initial quarter.
 
Truett McConnell (1-5, 0-1 AAC) leveled the score with a pair of swift goals, but Madison Terrell, Jarboe and McKinley Edmondson outpaced two additional TMU tallies to ensure the Cavs held a 5-4 lead after 15 minutes of play.
 
Each team deposited a trio of shots into the netting during the game's second quarter. Wiegand notched her second goal just over five minutes into the frame, but three Bears' strikes allowed the hosts to capture their first lead of the night, 7-6, with 2:38 remaining in the half; however, Wiegand answered immediately, completing her hat trick while adding an additional goal for good measure. As a result, Montreat entered the intermission with an 8-7 lead.
 
TMU owned advantages in shots (27-15) and shots on goal (15-13) at the break, but the Cavaliers held a 9-7 edge in draw controls. Chloe Andrews made eight saves during the first half, keeping the visitors in front by a goal.
 
Alex Chapman's first career goal pushed the Montreat lead to 9-7 merely 2:09 into the third quarter, and the Cavs controlled much of the frame from there. Adara Vouriotis, Jarboe and Edmondson each scored off a Terrell pass, and both Jarboe and Terrell rounded out their individual hat tricks in the period. The Bears did register the final two tallies in the quarter, but Montreat still possessed a 14-11 lead with 15 minutes remaining in regulation.
 
The Terrell-to-Jarboe connection proved lethal again for the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter. The Montreat duo combined for two more strikes in the frame, canceling out a pair of Truett McConnell goals in the process. Jarboe tacked on her third goal of the period and sixth of the contest with two minutes left, and Terrell contributed her fourth of the night 55 seconds later to round out an 18-14 victory. The win marked Bone's first as the full-time head coach of the Montreat women's lacrosse program.
 
"The win tonight was a real team effort," Bone noted. "The women played hard for each other, and it showed. We hustled from the first draw and kept that same energy the entire game."
 
While the Bears took more shots (41-29) than the Cavs, both teams managed to place 25 of their attempts on target. Defensively, Andrews led all goalies with 11 saves. On the offensive side, Jarboe totaled a game-high six goals, and Terrell accrued a career-best five assists to go along with four tallies. Wiegand also recorded four scores, a career high.
 
The Montreat women's lacrosse team begins a 6-game homestand on Saturday with an AAC battle versus Tennessee Wesleyan University. Opening draw control is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Pulliam Stadium in Black Mountain, N.C.