TAMPA, Fla. – No. 5 Florida Tech ran past No. 16 Tampa in the second half on the way to their first Sunshine State Conference victory, 22-13, on the road at Naimoli Field.
The Crimson and Gray improve to 11-1 and 1-1 in the SSC, while the Spartans drop to 9-5 and 1-2 in league play.
The 22 goals scored by the Panthers are the most allowed by Tampa this season. Prior to facing Florida Tech, the Spartans had allowed just 7.07 goals against per game.
Sara Grenier led the Panthers with six goals, four draw controls, two ground balls and a caused turnover.
Mollie Kaplan and
Leah Dunn finished with four goals apiece.
Caroline Dunleavy dished out four assists.
Lauren Tybor recorded two goals, three assists, 11 draw controls, four ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Sam Schiano added a hat trick, two caused turnovers, two ground balls and two draw controls.
Brittney Embree and
Haley Heggblod collected two caused turnovers apiece.
Florida Tech ended the contest with more shots, 40-20, and draw controls, 23-14, while Tampa gathered more ground balls, 21-19.
Maggie Gladden opened the scoring to give UT a 1-0 edge. On the ensuing draw, Tybor scooped up the loose ball and took it to the cage to tie the game at 1-1 with 25:25 left in the first half.
The Spartans grabbed a 3-2 lead with 19:12 to go. FIT answered with a 6-1 run, including two goals each by Grenier and Dunn, to make the score 8-4 in favor of the Panthers with less than 11 minutes remaining in the opening half.
Tampa trimmed the margin to 10-8 with 5:28 left but a goal by Grenier off an assist from Dunleavy handed the Panthers an 11-8 advantage heading into halftime.
UT kicked off the second half with goals by Caroline Forester and Rachel Crawford to cut the deficit to 11-10. However, three straight tallies by Kaplan over a 1:59 span gave FIT a 14-10 edge.
A 5-0 spurt later in the half gave FIT a 19-11 advantage with 6:01 remaining. The Panthers would outscore Tampa, 3-2, the rest of the game, on the way to their fourth straight win over the Spartans.
Florida Tech is back in action on Saturday, Apr. 7, hosting SSC rival, No. 8 Rollins College at noon at Panther Stadium. Fans can access live coverage of the matchup on FloridaTechSports.com/live.
