FAIRFAX, Va - After scoring 10 straight goals to start the game, George Mason rode its early lead to survive a second-half Lancer rally for a 16-11 win over Longwood women's lacrosse Saturday afternoon at George Mason Stadium.

George Mason (3-2) opened the game with three players combining for nine goals in the game-opening run, including Chachi Kelehan's four and three apiece from Jacquelyn Spalding and Jordan Sdanowich. The Lancers rallied with an eight-goal second half which featured five from sophomore Madison Stair, but the quick start helped the Patriots score a season-high 16 goals to withstand the Lancer comeback.

"I loved the fact that our team showed a lot of fight and mental toughness in battling back from a huge deficit in the first half," said Longwood head coach Elaine Jones. "However, moving forward the team knows we just can't afford to dig ourselves such a deep hole."

Behind the spark from its scoring trio, George Mason kept their momentum going to take a 12-2 lead upon scores by Kelehan and Alexa McGovern in response to Lancer goals from Sarah Butler and Cassie Angeles. After Butler put Longwood on the board, the freshman attacker Kelehan scored her fifth and final goal of the day at the 17-minute mark while the junior midfielder McGovern added another with 6:19 left in the first half following the goal by Angeles.

Longwood responded with a goal from freshman midfielder Stephanie Roberts with just over a minute to go in the first half to bring the score back to within singles digits, 12-3, heading into the break. The goal from Roberts would end up igniting Longwood's scoring run of its own, as the Lancers outscored the Patriots 10-5 over the final 31 minutes of the game.

At the start of the second half, the Patriots extended their lead to 11 with back-to-back goals, including an own goal by Longwood one minute into the period. George Mason sophomore attacker Lindsey Tangeman stretched the score to 14-3 with just over 27 minutes left in the action on her unassisted goal.

The Lancers regrouped following the two mishaps to get things going with seven straight goals to bring Longwood to within five scores, the team's lowest deficit of the afternoon at that point.

Sophomore Madison Stair spearheaded the spirited comeback attempt by the Lancers with five goals in the second half, all of which came in the last 24 minutes of action. The five-goal effort pushed Stair into a tie with Sarah Butler for a team-leading 26 goals while it also marked the third straight contest the sophomore midfielder has scored four goals or more.

Stair ignited and capped off the Longwood scoring surge with two separate series of back-to-back goals to bring the score to 14-9 with nine minutes still on the clock. The sophomore midfielder netted her first two on feeds from seniors Sarah Butler and Katie McHugh within a five minute span at the 37-minute point.

Also joining in on the seven-goal spree was the dual-threat duo of Butler and McHugh, who each found the net in under a minute. In addition to scoring an unassisted goal to give her two on the day, Butler then set up McHugh's only score of the afternoon to cut the Patriot lead to 14-7.

In addition to the quick score and assist, Longwood's offensive leader in Butler then connected with Stair on the sophomore's third and fourth goals of the day to cut the deficit to five with 8:55 remaining. Butler finished the game with two goals to go along with three assist and one groundball after the big Lancer run.

After seeing Longwood bring the game down to five, George Mason quickly pushed its lead to six goals on McGovern's score with 8:25 left on the game clock. McGovern found the net for her final time to give her two in the game upon being set up by freshman teammate Kelehan, who finished with three assists and one groundball to go along with her five-goal peformance.

In a battle against the game clock, and still with a lot of fight left, the Lancers went on to notch back-to-back goals from McHugh and Stair to pull them to within four with two minutes to go.

The team's second stretch of two straight goals on the day was sparked by an unassisted goal from the senior McHugh and ended with Stair's final score of the game. McHugh finished the game with two goals, an assist, one groundball and two draw controls.

Stair brought the score to 15-11 with her fifth goal of the game with 1:59 on the clock on the helper from Hollyn Royster, which gave the Lancers their lowest deficit of the contest. The assist marked the second of two feeds on the day by the sophomore midfielder Royster, who aided on Butler's first goal earlier in the game.

On the ensuing draw, which was reeled in by McHugh, George Mason's defense blocked a shot by Butler that would have cut Longwood's deficit to three. Instead, Keira Greer scooped up the ground ball for the Patriots who took it the other way and scored their 16th goal in the contest as time was expiring.

"We gained more possessions and got our offense easily rolling in the second half, but unfortunately we just ran out of the time we needed to make up the deficit," said Jones.

Possession proved to be crucial as the Patriots began the game with 10 draw controls in the first 11 minutes of action which included their stretch of 10 straight goals. George Mason finished with a 22-17 draw control advantage over the Lancers for the game behind a game-high six from Hanna Warpinski.

In spite of the parity in draw controls for the game, however, the Lancers held the upper hand in turnovers which gave them 11 extra possessions in the second half and put the Patriots at an 18-13 disadvantage in turnovers for the entire game.

Longwood made the most of their possessions off turnovers, as the team took seven of its game-high 10 caused turnovers the other way for goals to account for more than half of the Lancer scoring. McKenzie, who leads Longwood in caused turnovers this season, caused a team-high four turnovers while fellow defender Madelynn Rollins followed closely behind with two.

In goal for the Lancers, Longwood goalkeeper Chelsea DiIonno filled in for the sophomore Imani West after George Mason's 10th goal to lead a Longwood defensive unit that held the Patriots to four goals in the period. She also recorded six saves to along with three groundballs collected in her 49 minutes of action.

"Overall, today was a good learning experience that showed us what we need to concentrate on and improve as we look toward the start of our conference play next week," Jones said.

Longwood will look to recover next weekend when it begins Big South play against the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Saturday, March 26. The game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start.

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