SPARTANBURG, S.C. – After falling behind in the first quarter, the Wofford College women's lacrosse team used a strong second quarter on the way to a 20-19 win over Winthrop in the Big South Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday afternoon at Gibbs Stadium.
 
The Terriers trailed 8-5 in the first quarter but took a 12-11 lead at the half. In the second half, Wofford led by as many as five goals before withstanding a late rally by the Eagles to win and advance to the semifinals. It was the first postseason win in school history for the Terriers.
 
Wofford was led by Bria Foley with ten points on six goals and four assists. She set a new single season record with 103 points. Olivia Graebner had three goals and three assists for six points, while Emma Stalteri had four goals and Laura Montagna and Carley Irvin had three goals each. The 20 goals scored in the game were the most by the Terriers this season and the fourth-most in school history. Wofford had a 36 to 33 lead on shots and had a 23 to 18 advantage on ground balls. Brooke Meltcher led the team with five ground balls, with Olivia Graebner picking up four.
 
The Eagles had 19 turnovers, 14 of which were caused by the Terriers. Olivia Graebner caused four turnovers and Brooke Meltcher added three. Winthrop had a 22 to 20 lead in draw controls, with Carley Irvin leading the team with nine. Ella Smithers had six saves in goal.
 
To begin the game, Winthrop scored first and Emma Stalteri then tied the game at 1-1 just 48 seconds into play. After two more Winthrop goals, Stalteri scored again for a 3-2 game at the 11:25 mark. The Eagles scored three straight for a 6-2 lead before a Bria Foley goal. Another Winthrop goal at 5:05 in the first quarter gave them their largest advantage of the game at 7-3. Carlie Cutinella and Laura Montagna had goals to cut the lead to 7-5, but the Eagles had an 8-5 lead with 2:39 left in the first quarter.
 
A Bria Foley goal with four seconds on the clock in the first quarter began a 6-1 run for the Terriers. Two goals by Olivia Graebner and one each by Laura Montagna, Carley Irvin and Emma Stalteri enabled Wofford to take an 11-9 lead with 4:32 left in the second quarter. Winthrop scored the next two goals to tie the game before a goal by Emma Stalteri with 12 seconds left in the half gave Wofford a 12-11 advantage at the break.
 
Wofford opened the third quarter with a 5-1 run, with three goals by Bria Foley and one each by Laura Montagna and Carley Irvin for a 17-12 lead with 9:23 on the clock. The Eagles were able to score four straight goals to cut the advantage to 17-16 with 4:01 left in the third quarter. Another goal by Brian Foley gave the Terriers an 18-16 lead at the end of the quarter.
 
Olivia Graebner had a goal two minutes into the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 19-16. After a goal by the Eagles, Carley Irvin scored on a free position shot for a 20-17 lead. Winthrop rallied for the next two goals to cut the lead to 20-19 with 3:26 left on the clock. The Eagles had a shot with 2:12 remaining that was high and Brooke Meltcher came up with the ground ball. After a successful clear, the Terriers took a shot with a minute to go that was saved but Wofford retained possession and was able to run out the clock for the win.
 
"It was a whirlwind," said head coach Jessie Aguglia. "It is not how you start but how you finish, and I am proud of the resilience today. We haven't done a great job when we get down, but we have seen that we play well in the second quarter. We wanted to utilize that and make sure that the second quarter was ours. Going into halftime with the lead was great for us, and to be able to swing the momentum back to our side was awesome. The second half was playoff lacrosse, and everyone is going to give us their best game. We had to take advantage of our opportunities and control what we could control."
 
Winthrop, the #5 seed, ends their season at 6-11 overall. They were led by Tori Iannotti with seven goals and one assist, while Scarlet Cifarelli had two goals and six assists for eight points. Wofford now leads the all-time series against Winthrop 4-3 after winning both matchups this season.
 
Wofford (9-9) is the #4 seed and advances to play #1 seed Mercer on Friday, May 2, at 4:00 p.m. in Macon. This is the first appearance in the Big South Tournament for the Terriers and the win was the first playoff win in school history. The nine overall wins have surpassed the previous school record of seven set in 2023 and 2024.