BUENA VISTA, Va.—Hoping for its first victory of the season, the Southern Virginia University women's lacrosse team fell to visiting Beloit College by a score of 17-9 Tuesday night at The Fields in Buena Vista, Virginia.

Junior Rainey Whitworth got things going early for the Knights by scoring just 23 seconds into the game to give Southern Virginia a quick 1-0 lead.

The Knights and Bucs traded goals nearly every minute for the first 18 minutes of the game as Beloit held a slight 7-5 advantage with 12 minutes before the half. During the span, sophomore Claire Houghtaling, junior Zoe Bradshaw and Whitworth provided the goals for the Knights to keep the game in reach.

Beloit would go on to score three unanswered goals in the first half to go into halftime with a 9-5 advantage.

Whitworth and Bradshaw each scored a pair of goals in the second half, but the Knights struggled to maintain Beloit's momentum as the Bucs scored eight more goals in the final 30 minutes en route to the 17-9 victory.

The duo of Whitworth and Bradshaw finished the game with four goals apiece to lead the Knights Ericha Golder and keeper Cammi Miller each registered two ground balls. Houghtaling won six draw controls on the night while Whitworth tallied four. Sarah Vanderwende logged two draw controls in the loss.

Despite 12 saves on the night, Miller picked up her sixth loss of the season at goal for the Knights while the Bucs' Marci McClenon earned four saves and improves to 2-2 on the year.

Southern Virginia next competes Thursday at 6 pm to face NAIA opponent Columbia College (S.C.) at The Fields in Buena Vista, Virginia.