Buena Vista, VA - Looking to build on a two-game winning streak, the Southern Virginia University men's lacrosse team welcomed last year's USA South runner-ups, Piedmont, to Knight Stadium. In a hard-fought battle, they lost pace with the Lions in the second half and suffered an 18-12 loss.

Piedmont jumped out to an early lead with a goal in its opening possession. The Knights responded by scoring five of the next six goals to assert themselves into the lead. Faceoffs played a big part of it as the Knights looked much improved from earlier in the season.

After the Lions came back to tie the score at the end of the first, Southern Virginia put together another strong few minutes to open the second. Clay Haacke netted two more to finish with four goals in the first half before JC Winterton added another on the man-advantage to take an 8-6 lead. But once again, Piedmont rallied with three consecutive goals to take the lead into the half.

Haacke and Winterton helped the Knights keep pace in the early stages of the third with another two goals. Jace Lightfoot stood tall in goal, making six quality saves during an onslaught of Piedmont shot attempts.

Despite quality play on both sides of the ball from Southern Virginia, Piedmont surged through the rest the way, outscoring the Knights 8-2 before the final buzzer to end the Knights' winning streak.

Lightfoot made 15 saves on goal while Clay Haacke spearheaded the attack with 6 goals, his best single-game output of the season. Porter Alleman and Ben Sluga performed admirably at the faceoff x against a quality opponent, winning nearly half of their combined draws. Southern Virginia will look to rebound against William Peace on Saturday, April 5th at 12:00 PM. 

For the most up-to-date information and details on the team, visit knightathletics.com and follow @knight_mlax on Instagram.