CLEARWATER, Fla. – The sunshine state helped deliver a bright spot to the Otterbein women's lacrosse season record on Monday afternoon, as the Cardinals used a big second half to walk away with a 16-9 victory over Neumann University.

Otterbein, which received a nice visit from President Dr. John Comerford before the game, jumps to 3-2 on the season and will now have nine full days off to relax. The Cards will be back in action on March 11 against Franciscan.

A low-scoring first half saw just nine combined goals, as the contest saw ties at 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4 until a goal with 2:18 before the break gave Neumann a 5-4 lead.

Otterbein made adjustments at halftime and opened the second half with a bang, going on a 4-0 run to jump ahead and never trail again. The Knights netted a pair to stop the momentum temporarily, but the Cards then delivered another 4-0 spurt during the middle portion of the period to stretch the lead to five.

Macey Buchanan and Cameron Finnegan both scored five times on the day, as Buchanan helped Otterbein retain possession by securing a game-high 10 draw controls. Finnegan recently went over 100 career points against Transylvania this past weekend.

Freshman Lauren Newkirk (3G, 3A) added six points of her own for the offense, while Kiera Mulcahy scoped up a game-best four ground balls. Otterbein won 21 of 27 draw controls throughout, while out-shooting the Knights 47-28.

Leah McNutt went the distance in goal with 12 stops, while counterpart Catriona Corrigan had 16 on the opposite end. Neumann was led by four goals from Brylin Adams.