SPARTANBURG, S.C.- Tusculum spoils Converse's home season opener on Saturday afternoon defeating the Valkyries 13-8.  Converse drops to 0-1 on the young season, while Tusculum picks up their first win of the season at 1-0.

Laura Starkes (Whitby, Ontario) led the Valkyries picking up a hat-trick with three goals.  Brittni Jones (Lees Summitt, Mo.) and Chelsea Worrell (Orlando, Fla.) scored two goals apiece.  Aubrie Lauderdale (Greenville, S.C.) scored a goal and added an assist.

Converse started the match fast with Worrell scoring an assisted goal off the draw just 59 seconds into the contest.  Tusculum countered with two goals to take an early 2-1 lead.  Starkes stopped the Pioneer rally with her first goal of the contest.

Tusculum would dominate the rest of the scoring in the first half tallying four unanswered goals to take a 6-2 advantage into the break.

Converse opened the scoring in the second half with an unassisted goal by Jones.  Starkes recorded her second and third goals of the contest bringing the deficit to 8-5 in favor of Tusculum.  

Worrell would tally her second goal of the contest with 14:28 remaining on a free position attempt before Tusculum countered with two more goals.  Lauderdale capitalized on her free position attempt scoring her first goal of her career.  Jones tallied her second goal of the contest with 5.6 seconds remaining.

Converse heads to Misenheimer, N.C. to face Conference Carolinas foe Pfeiffer next Saturday, February 14.  First draw at 12 pm.