It was a historic night in Fayetteville Friday night, when the Whitewater Lady Wildcats played their first-ever varsity lacrosse match at Wildcat Stadium.

The Decatur Lady Bulldogs prevented Whitewater from celebrating its special night with a victory, coming from behind to defeat the Lady Wildcats 11-9.

It was an impressive match for fledgling Whitewater, especially considering it was squaring off against an established team like Decatur.

“I thought the girls played very well,” Whitewater coach Amie LaPorte said. “We made some mistakes, but once they were brought to the girls’ attention, they made corrections. I don’t think there are many first-year teams that could have done as well as we did tonight.”

Alicia Logan's match-opening goal was the first scored in the history of Wildcat Stadium, which gave the Lady Wildcats an early 1-0 lead, and she later became the first lacrosse player in school history to record a hat trick.

Katie Ferrell almost became the second Whitewater player to record a hat trick, but she finished just short with two goals.

Logan and Ferrell combined to score more than half of Whitewater’s goals.

In addition to the one lead it held, Whitewater tied the match five times. The last tie occurred following back-to-back goals within one minute by Farrell and Logan with 16:16 left in the second half.

Decatur answered with back-to-back goals of its own to grab a 10-8 lead.

Whitewater’s Megan Dorriety scored to cut Decatur’s lead to one, but that’s as close as the feisty Lady Wildcats would get.

LaPorte feels the future is bright for her inexperienced Lady Wildcats.

“I’m very excited about my team,” LaPorte said. “I think we’re going to do fairly well in our region.”

Other players who scored for Whitewater were Courtney Winslett, Caitlin Baird and Liz Webb, who also had an assist.

Goalkeeper Bryttany Uy had 14 saves for Whitewater.

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