On Monday night, the Marshall County Tigerettes saw their season come to an end when they were defeated 8-2 at home by a strong Spring Hill Lady Raider squad in the first round of the District 12-A-AA tournament.

MCHS had played Spring Hill (8-4) tough in their lone regular season meeting before eventually dropping a 3-1 decision to the Lady Raiders.

Spring Hill, however, quickly dashed the Tigerettes' upset hopes in Monday's contest and built a 5-1 lead in the first half prior to outscoring the Tigerettes 3-1 in the second stanza.

'Too many mistakes'

"We just made mistakes. We had the same game plan, but we just made too many mistakes tonight. Spring Hill is a very good team and they are going to penalize you for it when you do," said MCHS coach Mark Redferrin.

Despite Monday's loss, the Tigerettes (8-8-1) nearly tripled their win total from a year ago after notching only three victories during the 2012 campaign.

"We've improved by leaps and bounds and have gotten so much better. Our work ethic has improved and I expect the same amount of improvement next year," said Redferrin. "I could not have had a better group of seniors. They're leaders on and off the field and make everyone on the team better. It was good to see them have success this year."

Scoring

Bolstered by their strong first half performance, the Lady Raiders outshot Marshall County 24-11 overall. Cameron Williams scored three goals to spearhead Spring Hill's offensive onslaught, while Brooklyn Prewett added a goal and two assists. Arielle LeMieux, Bailey Loveless, Brooke Nicholson, and Brianna Thompson tallied one goal apiece for the Lady Raiders as well with LeMieux and Loveless each registering an assist.

Starting goaltender Lexie Habberley recorded three saves for Spring Hill. Taylor Hawkins replaced Habberley in net at the start of the second half and tallied six saves.

Seniors Clara Wilson and Emily Spence both scored one goal apiece for the Tigerettes, while Abbey Redferrin recorded two assists. Marshall County goalie Alexis Ford made several tough saves and stopped 16 Spring Hill shots overall.

Ambush

The Lady Raiders ambushed MCHS at the start of the contest, as they took a 1-0 lead in the first minute when Thompson fired a low, skidding shot past Ford after receiving a pass from LeMieux directly in front of the net.

Williams stretched Spring Hill's lead to 2-0 in the fifth minute by taking a pass from Prewett in the middle of the field before lacing a shot just underneath the top post of the net from the top of the goalie box.

Marshall County had a chance to cut into the deficit in the 12th minute when Spence received a nice pass from Wilson directly in front of the Lady Raider net, but Habberley made a diving save on Spence's close range shot to keep MCHS off the board.

After Nicholson headed in a corner kick by Prewett in the 21st minute to give Spring Hill a 3-0 advantage, Williams pushed the Lady Raiders' lead to 4-0 in the 27th minute by rifling a 20-yard shot into the upper left hand corner of the net, before Loveless kicked in a loose ball directly in front of the Marshall County goal in the 37th minute to make it 5-0.

Tigerettes score

The Tigerettes trimmed the deficit to 5-1 in the waning moments of the first half when Wilson curled a 20-yard shot into the upper left hand corner of the net after running down a long pass from Abbey Redferrin on the right side of the field.

The Lady Raiders continued to pull away at the start of the second half, as Prewett fired a 15-yard shot just inside the left post in the 44th minute to stretch their lead to 6-1 before Williams lined a 20-yard shot through Ford's hands in the 45th minute to give Spring Hill a 7-1 cushion.

LeMieux then extended the Lady Raiders' lead to 8-1 in the 76th minute by winning a loose ball in front of the Marshall County net and hammering home a close range shot.

Spence capped the scoring in the 77th minute when she took a pass from Abbey Referrin on the right side of the net before dribbling around a Spring Hill defender and lining a 15-yard shot into the left hand side of the goal for the 8-2 final.