NEWBERRY - A goal in the final two minutes by junior Victoria Thomas earned the Newberry women's lacrosse team its first South Atlantic Conference victory by a 6-5 decision over the Catawba Lady Indians at Setzler Field on Saturday.

Newberry (2-6, 1-1 SAC) fell behind Catawba (3-4, 2-1 SAC) early on a free position goal, but returned fire as sophomore Jessica Baxtrom (St. Leonard, Md.) lofted a pass in-front of the crease that sophomore Noelle Allen (Lawrenceville, Ga.) one-timed by the Catawba keeper as she leapt into the air.

After Allen's highlight reel goal, senior KerriAnn Barlage (Glen Burnie, Md.) netted her 21st goal of the year off a free position opportunity. Ten seconds after Barlage's goal, sophomore Carly Marksberry (Lawrenceville, Ga.) corralled a pass from junior Tessa Davis (Triangle, Va.) and dumped a shot into the back of the net to give the Wolves a 3-1 lead.

Catawba netted a second goal before the first period concluded.

The goal near the end of the first period for the Lady Indians gave Catawba momentum out of the break with Kaleigh Reidy netting a goal less than a minute into the second period. Reidy's goal was the first of three-straight for the Lady Indians as Catawba took a 5-3 lead.

Davis scored a goal of her own with 7:32 left in the first period to pull the Wolves back within one, only to see the game tied less than two minutes later as Davis assisted on Baxtrom's eighth goal of the year.

Newberry recovered the draw after Baxtrom's goal, but saw possession go the way of the Lady Indians after an offensive foul. A failed clear attempt with 4:17 to go by the Lady Indians seemed to give Newberry an opportunity to take the lead, but Barlage's shot with 3:32 was saved by Catawba's Bethany Davis.

Time continued to tick off the clock as the Lady Indians cleared the ball to the other end of the field. Unable to take advantage of a free position opportunity, Catawba turned the ball over to the Wolves with 1:29 on the clock. A groundball by redshirt-freshman Ajahna Grosvenor (Lawrenceville, Ga.) led to a clearance attempt for the Wolves. The successful clearance saw the ball in the net of Thomas' (Manhattan, Kan.) stick, before Thomas netted her fifth goal of the season.

Marksberry controlled the draw after Thomas' would-be game winner and was soon fouled as the Lady Indians were able to stop the clock. A Newberry turnover saw the ball go into the possession of Bethany Davis. With ten seconds remaining in regulation Allen forced a turnover on the Catawba keeper allowing for time to expire on a Newberry victory.

Allen led Newberry with three ground balls on the day, while Thomas snagged a team-high four draw controls. On the defensive end, Thomas and senior Tricia Powell (Monroe Township, N.J.) led Newberry with three caused turnovers.

The Wolves play a rare midday Monday game as No. 6 West Chester comes to Setzler Field on its way back to Pennsylvania at noon.