DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 18th-ranked Embry-Riddle women's lacrosse team mounted a fierce fourth-quarter rally against No. 7 Rollins on Wednesday. But the Eagles were unable to come away with the win as a late goal gave the Tars a 9-8 edge at the Barker Family Stadium. The result was the first conference loss of the season for the Eagles who are now 10-2 on the year and 1-1 in the Sunshine State Conference. Rollins is undefeated at 12-0 overall and 2-0 in the league.

Wednesday's game got off to a fast start offensively with two goals coming in the first 46 seconds. Embry-Riddle was the first to get on the scoreboard just 14 seconds in the contest when Sallie Squire won the draw and raced all the way to the goal to score her 39th goal of the season. Rollins answered 32 seconds later to equalize and two more goals in the last 6:30 of the period gave the Tars a 3-1 lead at the end of the first.

Rollins also won the second quarter, outscoring the Eagles 4-1 to build the advantage to 7-2 at the half.

After the third quarter yielded a lone goal by the Tars, the Eagle offense came alive in the fourth. Undeterred by a six-goal deficit, Embry-Riddle steadily mounted a comeback against the seventh-ranked Tars outscoring the home team 6-1 in the final 12 minutes. The rally started with Samantha Reich who scored a free-position goal and followed with an assist on Alexa Zeruto's goal at the 10:20 mark. Less than two minutes later, Zeruto struck again with an assist from Anna Maurer and Maurer got a goal of her own to narrow the gap to 8-6.

Three minutes went by without a goal from either team, but after Squire's shot was saved, the Eagles recovered the ball and worked it around the cage before Alexa Zeruto found her sister Kenley cutting to the goal and the Zeruto combination made it a one-goal (8-7) game with 4:18 left to play. Less than a minute later, the Eagles took advantage of a Tar turnover and got the ball to Squire who maneuvered around the defense to net the 100th goal of her career and tie the score (8-8) at the 3:09 mark.

The Tars were finally able to stop the Eagle onslaught just moments later as they scored off the draw following the Squire goal to grab the win.

The Eagles are back at the Embry-Riddle Lacrosse Stadium on Saturday to host No. 13 Lynn in another SSC match-up. First draw is scheduled for 1 p.m.