East Lyme — The East Lyme girls’ lacrosse team is in the middle of their state tour, testing themselves against four straight quality teams in non-conference games.

The Vikings haven’t beaten those programs yet, but they’re getting close.

Glenna-Kate Gies scored with one minute, 33 seconds left in regulation to break a tie and give unbeaten Hand an 8-7 win over the Vikings on Tuesday night at Dick North Stadium.

The Tigers (7-0) are the defending Southern Connecticut Conference champion and last season’s CIAC Class M runner-up. They’re ranked sixth in the laxpower.com computer rankings.

“They’re someone we measure our program against every year,” Phil Schneider said. “I told the girls before the game today that (Hand) is a good team, we’re a good team. We’ve got a lot of good players. … We’re figuring things out.”

The Vikings are 5-2.

“Could we have played better? At times,” Schneider said. “But overall, our effort and the way we played the whole game, we showed a lot of heart. Especially coming off of Glastonbury last week (a 17-9 loss on April 20) where I thought we played well, but we just didn’t match-up well.”

East Lyme closes out this week at Conard (Thursday) and Simsbury (Saturday).

The Vikings graduated 15 seniors, including seven starters. Their juniors scored all of Tuesday’s goals — Stephanie deLaforcade (three), Hailey Gordon (two goals), and Elena Hynes (two).

“We’re a rather young team,” East Lyme senior Nina Sanfilippo said, “but I think we’re starting to bring it together, and it’s really turning out great. I think it’s going to look really good in the future as well.”

The Tigers won the majority of draws and ground balls, but the Vikings stayed in the game thanks to keeper Alexandra Rose. The junior made a number of saves on point-blank shots that could’ve easily been Hand goals. She finished with 11.

“She kept us in it for long stretches,” Schneider said about Rose. “She’s been a steady goalie since her freshman year. She stepped things up. She’s the leader of our defense, and I can’t say enough good things about how she played. She really, really kept us in it, and I thought our whole defense played well.”

Katharine Garnett and Gies scored twice for Hand and Cameron Ruberti added two assists.

The Tigers had pulled ahead, 7-5, when deLaforcade, an all-state pick, scored twice in 12 seconds to tie the game.

East Lyme had a long possession late in the game but couldn’t convert.

The Tigers stalled with about three minutes left. The tactic worked as Gies fired a shot about 10 yards from the net that skipped off the turf and in for a goal.

“It was unfortunate, but that’s part of the game,” Schneider said.

n.griffen@theday.com