LAKELAND, Fla. (Women's Lacrosse) – After a slow start to the contest, which saw Florida Tech fall behind 5-0 early into its semifinal matchup with No. 3 seed Rollins, the Panthers fought back and defeated the Tars 19-14 to advance to Sunday's Sunshine State Conference Championship Game.
Allie Modica led all players with six points, on five goals and one assist.
Caroline Dunleavy recorded four goals and an assist, while
Aleah Fjelstad and
Sara Grenier contributed four and three goals, respectively.
Mary Gormley dished out a game-high four assists.
Modica and
Sam Schiano picked up four draw controls, apiece, with Schiano adding two goals and an assist to her stat line.
Haley Heggblod collected two ground balls to go along with a caused turnover.
Stephanie Stuart made seven saves in the victory.
The Panthers found themselves in a deep hole early, just 7:18 into the first half, as Rollins tallied five straight unassisted goals, three on free position shots.
Modica stopped the bleeding with her first goal of the game. Her tally kicked off a 5-2 run by FIT that included five different goal scorers and cut the Crimson and Gray's deficit to 7-5 with 13:21 left in the opening period.
RC answered with consecutive goals by Hannah Ashton over a 51 second span that increased the Tars' lead to 9-5. However, the Panthers would answer with five straight goals, by Fjelstad,
Alexis Townsend, two by Modica and Grenier, to corral a 10-9 advantage just before halftime.
The Tars regained the lead, 11-10, with consecutive goals by Paige Brock and Kallie German to open the second half. A pair of woman-down goals by Dunleavy and Modica gave FIT a 12-11 edge with 16:56 remaining. However, RC responded with consecutive tallies by Ashton and German over the ensuing 57 seconds to grab a 13-12 advantage.
After Modica tied the game with 13:56 remaining, German struck again to hand the Tars a 14-13 lead. Schiano's free position goal evened the game, again, at 14-14 with 9:20 left on the clock. The Panthers took control from there, scoring five unanswered goals over the final 8:44 to pull away from Rollins in the end.
Florida Tech will now make its first ever appearance in the SSC Championship Game, taking on No. 1 seed Florida Southern this Sunday, Apr. 30, at 1 p.m. ET at Bryant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida. Fans can access live coverage of the action at FloridaTechSports.com.
