CONWAY, S.C. – Graduate student Samantha Courtemanche scored with 11 seconds left to lift the Coastal Carolina women's lacrosse team to an 11-10 Southern Conference victory over the visiting Mercer Bears in Brooks Stadium on Friday afternoon. With the win, the Chants improved to 8-6 on the year and 2-1 in conference play while the Bears fall to 4-6 overall and 2-2 in the SoCon.
 
CCU's offense was led by Courtemanche who finished with four goals and two assists for six points while junior attacker Megan Bozzi recorded her third hat trick of the season with three goals and an assist for four points.
 
On the defensive third, redshirt freshman Claire Martell tied her career-high in saves by making 12 stops in earning her eighth win of the year while fellow defenders Sarah Trupp, Haley Wells, Anya McSorley, and Emily D'Orsaneo caused two turnovers apiece. D'Orsaneo moved into the top spot in CCU program history for career games played and started with 75 each.
 
The Chanticleers struck first taking a 3-0 advantage before Mercer would score. Redshirt senior Megan Busch hit an open Avery Snyder with 3:55 expiring from the game clock before Bozzi scored her first goal of the day off the assist from Kayla Downey (three assists) to give CCU a 2-0 lead with 20:52 remaining in the half. Courtemanche pushed the advantage to 3-0 on an unassisted goal with 1:05 expiring from the game clock.
 
Mercer answered with back-to-back goals as Hailey Rhatigan (six goals) used several jukes to fill the back of the net on two unassisted goals to cut the Chants' lead to 3-2 with 17:02 left in the opening period.
 
Coastal's Bozzi and Downey teamed up for the second time in the opening half with 13:03 remaining as Bozzi's goal pushed the CCU lead to 4-2.
 
The Bears closed the first-half action with back-to-back goals by Rhatigan (2:54) and Shannon Urey (43 seconds) to even the contest at 4-4 heading into the intermission. Lily Morin put the visitors in front at 5-4 early in the second half to cap a three-goal run.
 
Coastal evened the contest up at 5-5 as Courtemanche hit a cutting Abbey Buchanan with 26:30 left in the contest.
 
Mercer answered with four unanswered goals to take the 9-5 advantage with just under 19 minutes remaining to play. Erin Degnan opened the run from the Morin assist to put the Bears up 6-5 with 25:10 on the game clock. Rhatigan returned to the scoring action getting back-to-back goals with the unassisted tally (22:30) followed by a free-position goal with 21:42 left to play to make it 8-5. With 18:39 left in regulation, Lindsey Lewis made it 9-5 on the unassisted goal.
 
Coastal closed out the second-half action with a six-goal to one run for the final margin. Courtemanche scored her second goal of the day with 16:22 to play off the assist from Busch to cut the Mercer lead to 9-6. The duo of Bozzi and Downey teamed up for the third time of the contest to pull the Chants to within 9-7 with 14:06 left in the game before Avery Drouin cut the lead to 9-8 as Courtemanche hit the Derry, N.H. native diving from the top of the 8-meter arc with 1:01 expiring from the game clock.
 
The Bears' Rhatigan pushed the lead to 10-8 off her sixth unassisted tally with 12 minutes left to play.
 
 The Chanticleers finished off the scoring as Snyder cut the lead to 10-9 with 8:21 left in regulation. In the final minute, Courtemanche scored twice, the first to even the match up at 10-10 on an unassisted goal with 52 seconds left on the game clock. The Ellicott City, Md. native's second score in the final minute would prove to be the game-winner, as she dove in front of the goal, took the pass from Bozzi, and fired a behind-the-head shot for the game-winning goal to put the Chants on top 11-10 with just 11 seconds remaining in the contest.
 
The Coastal Carolina women's lacrosse team will travel to Florida for a match-up against Jacksonville on April 23 followed by a contest at Stetson on April 25. The opening draws are scheduled for 4 p.m. ET and noon ET, respectively.
 
For complete coverage of CCU women's lacrosse, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalWLax (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.