FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist women's lacrosse team improved to 3-0, the best start in school history, with a 10-9 win over Saint Vincent on Saturday afternoon at Monarch Stadium.
 
Maddi Ronelli and Hope Motahari scored five and four goals, respectively, as the Monarchs remained perfect on the season. Saint Vincent dropped to 0-1 in 2015.
 
After taking an 8-5 lead on Motahari's unassisted goal with 39 seconds left in the first half, the Monarchs allowed Saint Vincent to score with 12 ticks on the clock to cut MU's lead to 8-6 at the break. The Bearcats' Maggie Nelson scored the first two goals of the second half, the first one at the 20:00 mark, and the second at 16:31 to tie the game at 8-8.
 
Ronelli scored off a feed from Sareena Coleman at 15:14 to give the Green and Gold an 9-8 lead and the score would remain there for nearly 10 minutes. At 5:31, Sarah Wallerstedt scored unassisted to tie the game at 9-9, but following a timeout, Emily Brennen fed a pass to Motahari, who beat Michelle Mitchell with the game-winning with 2:35 to play.
 
The Bearcats had a chance to tie the game in the final minute, but Emily Ewin made a big save and scooped up a ground ball to allow the Monarchs to run out the clock.
 
Saint Vincent scored the first two goals of the game for a 2-0 lead just over three minutes into the contest. The Monarchs came back with three successive tallies, including two by Ronelli to go in front 3-2 at the 23:29 mark. SVC recaptured the lead, 5-4, on back-to-back goals by Nelson, but Bianca Terenzi scored unassisted knot the game at 5-5 with 12:15 left in the first half.
 
The two teams were dead even in shots at 19 apiece, and Methodist picked up 24 ground balls to 19 for the Bearcats. Saint Vincent was dominant in the draw circle, winning 15 draws to six for the Monarchs, but the Bearcats committed five more turnovers (27) than did MU (22).
 
Ewin made seven saves on the day to pick up her third win, and Mitchell also made seven saves for Saint Vincent.
 
Ronelli also led MU with five ground balls, and Brennen scooped up four. Motahari added four caused turnovers.
 
For Saint Vincent, Nelson finished with five goals, and Wallerstedt had a pair of goals and an assist. Wallerstedt also had five draw controls, and she and Kelsey McMillen each had four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
 
The Monarchs are slated to host St. Andrews on Sunday beginning at 1:00 pm.