MELBOURNE, Fla. (Women's Soccer) - Florida Tech (4-2-1, SSC 1-1) lost its first conference match of the season, 3-2 against No. 20 Nova Southeastern (5-0, SSC 2-0) on Wednesday night at Rick Stottler Field.

Paving the way for Florida Tech was Red-shirt senior Elin Svennson, who gave the Crimson and Gray a 1-0 lead in the second minute of play. The midfielder scored on a driving run toward the box, dribbling through the Sharks defense before lodging her first seasonal goal in the bottom right corner of the net.

The Sweden-native would strike again in the second period, but this time on a breakaway through the Nova defense with a left-footer into the right side of the net. Over her 90-minutes of play, Svennson finished the match with all six of her shots placed on goal.

Controlling the pace of the match at the whistle, the Panthers took the lead at the two-minute mark before the Sharks quickly responded to tie the game with six minutes left in the first half.
Heading to the second half of play with the scored tied at one, a favorable first half performance led by the Panthers disappeared, as the games pace turned in favor of NSU. The Sharks came out firing, capitalizing on FIT's mistakes to put two goals in between the goal posts within a 14-minute time span.  

Continuing to be tenacious however, the Melbourne-squad was able to close the gap within the final six minutes of play. Down by one with under three minutes remaining, Florida Tech tried to sink the equalizer but eventually fell short to the Ft. Lauderdale team, 3-2.

"I don't feel good about the game tonight", said head coach Dustin Smith.  "We did not show up with the effort we have been illustrating in our previous six games. Tonight's performance was not consistent, we had multiple spurts throughout the night and you cannot beat one of the top teams in the country when you are not playing a full 90 minutes. I give credit to Nova tonight for their performance, they proved that they can beat you multiple ways using their size, strength, and speed."

The Panthers return to action Saturday, as they travel to Saint Leo to face the Lions. Florida Tech takes on the SLU at 7 p.m. ET. 

For more info, fans can access FloridaTechSports.com.