LAURINBURG, N.C.— Playing its final regular-season contest of the year, the Montreat women's lacrosse team traveled to Laurinburg, N.C. for an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) tilt with the St. Andrews University Knights. Following a strong start and a solid finish, the Cavaliers claimed a 16-8 victory en route to a 6-7 (4-2 AAC) record.
 
St. Andrews (1-10, 0-5 AAC) tallied the first goal of the matchup; however, the Cavs closed the initial quarter with four straight to lead by three through 15 minutes. McKinley Edmondson registered a hat trick over 6:14 of game time and Madison Terrell netted a strike with 21 seconds left to put the visitors up 4-1.
 
SAU then responded by outscoring Montreat in the second frame to pull within a pair of goals in a back-and-forth period, but goals from Terrell and Grace Wiegand kept the Cavaliers ahead 6-4 at the intermission.
 
Though the Knights came within a single goal at the start of the third, Edmondson, Wiegand and Terrell combined for three goals in 1:38 to immediately expand the gap back out to four (9-5). Terrell then finished off the scoring for the Cavs in the frame, putting her team up 10-5. Ultimately, Montreat entered the final quarter with a 10-7 advantage.
 
The Cavaliers concluded the contest by recording six of the seven strikes in the last frame. Terrell and Hannah Jarboe polished off shots before Wiegand completed her hat trick and Jarboe netted another to make it 14-7 halfway through the fourth. Following SAU's last goal, Terrell ended the scoring with two goals in the final 1:22, capping off the 16-8 scoreline.
 
Montreat held advantages in shots (36-28), shots on target (27-20), opposing turnovers (19-17) and free position goals (4-0), while both teams won 14 draw controls. The Knights finished with more ground balls (20-15) and caused turnovers (14-9).
 
Individually, Terrell led the offense with seven goals and three assists. Wiegand (3G, 2A) also tallied five points, while Edmondson (4G) and Jarboe (2G) had the other points. Edmondson captained the team with four ground balls, and Chloe Andrews made 11 saves in net to improve her record to 4-2.
 
With the triumph, the Cavaliers locked up the No. 3 seed in next week's AAC Tournament. Montreat's first round game against a yet-to-be-determined No. 6 seed is slated for Thursday at 3 p.m. in Williamsburg, Ky.