LAKELAND, Fla. – Sallie Squire and Kenley Zeruto combined for seven goals for the Embry-Ridddle women's lacrosse team on Saturday, but their efforts weren't enough to push the 13th-ranked Eagles past No. 5 Florida Southern. The Blue and Gold fell to the Lady Mocs 26-14 on Florida Southern's home field to move to 12-3 overall and 3-2 in Sunshine State Conference play. Florida Southern is 13-2 overall and 4-0 in the league.
 
Squire finished with four goals and an assist, while Zeruto tallied three goals and three assists. Embry-Riddle had a 22-20 edge in draw controls, but Florida Southern held a sizeable advantage in successful clears (21-9) and caused turnovers (13-5).
 
Samantha Reich got the game's first goal at the 14:44 mark of the first quarter to put the Eagles up 1-0. The lead was short-lived, however, as the Lady Mocs countered at the 13:04 mark with the first of three unanswered goals on the way to an 8-4 lead at the end of the first 15 minutes.
 
Like the first period, the start of the second featured an early goal by the Eagles, this time from Squire's stick. Once again, the Lady Mocs answered and built the lead to 11-5 before back-to-back goals by Zeruto and Anna Maurer narrowed the gap to four (11-7). Another Squire goal kept the deficit at four goals, but six of the next seven scores belonged to FSC who led 18-9 at the half.
 
The Lady Mocs outscored the Eagles 6-2 in the third to extend their lead to 24-11, but ERAU won a tightly contested fourth quarter, 3-2 to close out the game.
 
The Eagles will play their final home game of the season at 3 p.m. on Wednesday when they host No. 4 Tampa at the ERAU Lacrosse Stadium.