MOUNT OLIVE, North Carolina - The Embry-Riddle women's lacrosse team celebrated its first contest in over 23 months with the first win over a ranked team in program history on Saturday, upsetting 17th-ranked Mount Olive on the road, 14-12. The victory marked Head Coach Leah Peppelman's first career win as the Eagles began the season 1-0 for the fourth consecutive campaign. UMO (0-1) had few answers for the speed of ERAU, turning the ball over the the Blue and Gold 19 times in the season opener.

The first quarter was dominated by Embry-Riddle and Murphy McDonough, with the Eagle attacker registering four goals in the period to lead ERAU to a 6-3 lead, a lead that was never relinquished.

After McDonough scored 39 seconds into the game, the Trojans answered quickly before going in front 2-1 a little over five minutes in. However, the lead for UMO wouldn't last long as McDonough tied the game with her second goal, and then completed the first quarter hat trick at the seven-minute mark, giving ERAU the lead at 3-2.

UMO was able to briefly knot the game at 3-3, but the final three minutes were dominated by the Blue and Gold, starting with the first of Sallie Squire's five goals in the game, and then Elizabeth Ninesling and McDonough scoring back-to-back in less than 15 seconds as ERAU took a three-goal lead into the second quarter.

ERAU grew its lead to 8-4 when Maile Kuo and Squire notched goals in the second period, and after the hosts responded with two of their own, the Eagles found the back of the net two more times in the quarter, one each from Devyn Taht, and Squire as Embry-Riddle enjoyed a 10-7 halftime advantage.

Coming out of the break, the Trojans grabbed a little momentum when Ali Davis scored 80 seconds in to cut the Eagle lead to 10-8, but then Squire took over, scoring twice to push the ERAU advantage to four goals. Zariah Durham scored her first goal of the game with three minutes remaining in the third quarter, but UMO closed the gap entering the fourth with a pair of goals in the final 90 seconds.

The final quarter proved to be the quietest offensively for both sides, with neither team scoring for the first five minutes of the period. Aubrey Fixen saved some of her best goalkeeping for the final 10 minutes, registering four saves and keeping the hard-pressing Trojan offense at bay for most of the quarter.

Mount Olive finally broke through at the 9:10 mark to make it 13-11, but Durham came up with a massive goal a few minutes later that stopped what little momentum UMO had and gave it back to ERAU.

Fixen saved three straight Trojan shot attempts from the seven-minute mark on, and when UMO got its final goal of the day with 2:09 left to play, the Eagles were able to bleed most of the rest of the clock out to preserve the 14-12 win.

Squire finished with five goals, while McDonough scored four times for the Eagles. Durham's two scores were the final two goals for the Blue and Gold, with Ninesling, Taht, and Kuo all finding the back of the net once. Fixen had 10 saves in goal for the Eagles, with ERAU out-shooting the Trojans, 33-29, and going 18-for-21 on clear attempts.

Embry-Riddle stays on the road to take on Young Harris on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 1 p.m. in Young Harris, Georgia.