NEWBERRY – The Newberry College women’s lacrosse team dropped a home South Atlantic Conference matchup to Tusculum on Saturday afternoon, 15-7.

The Wolves (0-6, 0-3) were led by Jessica Baxtrom who scored four goals and added an assist and a draw control. Megan Kenny (Mauldin, S.C.) had a goal and an assist on three shots while causing three turnovers. Savannah Ohliger (Grantville, Ga.) and Alexis Kahler (West Bloomfield, Mich.) scored the other goals for the Wolves.

Newberry scooped up 21 ground balls and went 11-for-14 on clear attempts on the day. The Wolves also held an advantage on draw controls at 13-10. Courtney Reinhardt (Charleston, S.C.) and Morgan Rafaele (Hilton Head Island, S.C.) combined to make seven saves.

Tusculum outshot Newberry 29-17 for the contest and went 13-for-16 on clear attempts. The Pioneers also had a 32-21 advantage in ground balls.

Ajahna Grosvenor (Lawrenceville, Ga.) led Newberry in ground balls with four and caused three turnovers. Victoria Thomas (Manhattan, Kan.) had a team-high seven draw controls as well as a team-high six caused turnovers. She added one shot and three ground balls. Katie Thompson (Newark, Del.) caused one turnover and had one ground ball.

Tusculum opened the scoring with a goal just 48 seconds into the match. The game went scoreless for just over eight minutes before the Pioneers doubled their lead on an Erin Sims goal with 21:07 left in the half. The Wolves got themselves on the board as Baxtrom scored a goal on a Kenny assist to make it 2-1.

The Pioneers took control of the game as they scored five unanswered goals in the next 10 minutes to give them a 7-1 lead with 6:58 left in the first half. Newberry would get goals from Kahler and Ohliger each scored before the break to make it 9-3 in favor of Tusculum at halftime.

The Pioneers pushed their lead to as many as 10 goals but Newberry refused to go down without a fight as they scored the last three goals of the game to make the final margin.

The Wolves will have a quick turnaround as they host Saint Leo on Monday at 4 p.m. on the Setzler Field turf.