Junior attacker Adrian Rius made history when she became the first player in program history to score 100 career goals, but the Radford women's lacrosse team couldn't overcome an early deficit and eventually fell, 9-19, to Liberty on a beautiful Wednesday evening at Cupp Stadium. The Flames jumped out in front with back-to-back goals in the first five minutes of the contest, but junior midfielder Callie Bonnel responded at the 23:32 with a free position shot to keep the Highlanders right in the thick of things. Unfortunately, Liberty fired back with three straight goals to push its lead to 5-1 with 15:12 left in the first half. That's when Rius earned a free position attempt and confidently hit the back of the net for her first goal of the night, 36th of the season and the 100th of her career. It proved to be a hole that the Highlanders struggled to dig themselves out of against the nation's 19th-best defense, however. Radford and Liberty traded goals for the rest of the half and the Flames carried a 9-4 advantage into halftime. The second half began the same way as the first, with back-to-back Liberty goals, to extend the visitor's lead to 11-4. This time Radford found some traction after a called timeout by Head Coach Haley Marvine, scoring four of the next five goals to pull within four at 8-12 with 17:59 to go. The Flames managed to deflate all of the momentum the Highlanders gained by scoring six straight goals between 17:19 and 5:25 to create a 10-goal lead as the game reached its final moments. Once again led by Rius, the Highlanders were very strong on draw controls and won 19 of 30 chances. Rius and Bonnel led the offense with three goals each while redshirt sophomore midfielder Brittany Rinaldi scored twice. Rinaldi also contributed with five draw control wins to go with Rius' seven and Bonnel's four. Making her second straight start in the cage, redshirt sophomore Hannah Rosen got off to a bit of a slow start, but bounced back to make a season-high 14 saves. INSIDE THE BOX SCORE Sophomore defender Shea Swingle was strong on defense yet again, picking up five ground balls and causing three turnovers Sophomore attacker Lindsey Carroll finished with one goal, one assist and two ground balls Junior midfielder Juliette Ruland accounted for one more assist for the Highlanders The Flames played just one goalie for the first time all season. Katherine Widrick played all 60 minutes and made 11 saves Brianna McCaffrey, Jenna Joyal, Micaela Rich and Kayla Foster each finished with four points for Liberty Ground balls were extremely close with Liberty grabbing 20 and Radford getting 19 AROUND THE BIG SOUTH Campbell 20, Longwood 8 Gardner-Webb 21, Presbyterian 12 High Point 16, Winthrop 14 UP NEXT The Highlanders host Presbyterian for the final game of the regular season on Saturday, April 21 at Noon The Blue Hose are 2-14 overall and 0-6 in conference play after dropping a 21-12 decision to Gardner-Webb For the latest on Radford Athletics, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Highlander Happenings.