Highlanders Score Eight Goals Late, Stun Butler For First Win

Saturday, March 14

Radford, Va.

11:00 AM

Radford University

1-6

Butler

3-6

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
BUTLER	1	3	6	1	11
Radford	3	2	2	8	15

Photo by: Rob Simmons

Highlanders Score Eight Goals Late, Stun Butler For First Win

3/14/2026 2:21:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

RADFORD, Va. – The beauty of college athletics is that anything can happen on any given day. The Radford women's lacrosse team proved that, putting together their best 60 minutes of the season to take down a three-win Butler squad, 15-11, on Saturday afternoon at the SORC. The triumph is their first of the young season.

KEY STATS

Trailing by three goals after three, Radford outscored Butler 8-1 in the final 15 minutes.
Senior Mady Chaney scored her 100^th career goal in the victory. The Texan scored four times, including the tying and go-ahead goal in the fourth.
Freshman Ava Zeuner was victorious in her first start in goal, making 11 saves in the win.
Evie Gee added four goals, and Cassidy Deierlein scored three for hat tricks.
Maddy Driscoll's seven assists are the second most in a single game in Radford history.
Radford finished with 13 draw controls, six more than their previous high for a game this season.

PLAY BY PLAY
The defenses were at their best to start, with neither side cracking the scoreboard until well into the first period. The Highlanders forced a shot clock violation six minutes in. Butler scored their first goal with just under seven minutes left, but the Highlanders answered back on a score by Gee. Radford scored again on a rebound and shot by Ashlyn Bell, then Cheney won the draw control and scored a few moments later. The first ended in favor of Radford, 3-1.

The second quarter was full of back-and-forth play, with neither side finding the goal for over 10 minutes. Molly O'Brien broke through on a free position attempt goal that gave Radford a three-goal cushion. The Bulldogs answered quickly with three goals in less than three minutes, before Deierlein scored in the closing seconds of the first half to give Radford a 5-4 advantage at the half.

The momentum shifted back towards the Bulldogs in the third period. After Cheney scored her second goal of the game to give Radford a 6-4 lead, the Bulldogs rattled off five tallies to go ahead 9-6. Gee responded after the Highlanders won a draw control to get within two, but the Bulldogs answered right back with a goal less than a minute later. Butler seemed to have control ahead by three going into the final 15 minutes.

Radford got right after it to start the fourth. Deierlein converted a rebound into a goal, and a clutch save by Zeuner turned into another Deierlein goal the other way. A crucial play happened after the Highlanders won the draw control, as Cheney was fouled and scored on a free position attempted to tie it at 10-10. An offside on Butler after the proceeding draw control allowed the Highlanders to have a man-up, and Cheney scored her fourth goal to make it 11-10. Radford quickly added a goal to make it a two-goal lead, and another green card for offside by Butler led to an O'Brien goal to make it 13-10 with 8:32 left. Zeuner continued to make clutch saves, stopping two free position attempts to keep it a three-goal lead. Gee helped ice the game with a goal with three minutes left. Butler scored once more but never truly threatened, as the Highlanders ran the clock out for the big win.

UP NEXT
The Highlanders look to keep the momentum going into their next game at Campbell on Wednesday, March 18. First draw is set for 11:00 a.m. from Barker-Lane Stadium.

Follow Women's Lacrosse on Social Media
For more information on the Radford women's lacrosse team, follow @RadfordWLAX on X and Instagram or Radford Lacrosse on Facebook.

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