Waiting game starts for No. 9 Tigers

The start of Mid-South Conference lacrosse tournament semifinal action was blistering. Georgetown College and University of the Cumberlands each had two goals in the first two minutes of action. However, No. 7 Patriots (14-4) took over from there. They had six goals in the first 10 minutes and finished with a 20-11 win.

The No. 9 Tigers (9-8) now wait to see if some other ranked teams go down in conference tournaments and see a shift in the final rankings. As of now, GC is just on the outside of a national tournament trip, but No. 4 Indiana Tech plays No. 8 Lawrence Tech Saturday in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. Georgetown defeated LTU 11-7 at the start of this season, a convincing loss to Indiana Tech might have raters flip flop those GC and LTU in the final standings.

Since the most recent rankings came out, GC has three wins – two over teams receiving votes – with two losses – both two teams ranked in the top eight.

Friday, the Tigers struggled to clear the ball out of the defensive end. They were 9-of-16 in the first half and stalled the offense to just 10 shots. GC was proficient in the attempts it did get, scoring six of the nine shots on frame. However, Cumberlands got 24 shots and netted 12 in the first 30 minutes.

The host school and top-seed scored four straight goals to start the second half, putting the game to running clock, leads of 10 goals. UC did this four times in the final half. However, Georgetown never stopped clawing, pulling the game back to eight once and nine each of the other three times.

It was Avery Blackmon in the first half with four goals, but the youth showed what GC might see in the post-Blackmon era as Olivia Archer and Aly Case did a lot of the work in the final 30 minutes.

Blackmon led with five goals, Archer and Case each had two, Katherine Leighty had one. Tess Borders and Archer also each had an assist.