MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Florida Tech women's lacrosse team showed a lot of grit in its matchup with No. 6 Tampa on Wednesday night as the Panthers fell behind by four early on but continued to fight the rest of the way, eventually falling 11-6 at Panther Stadium.
Sam Schiano paced the Panthers with four goals, six draw controls and three caused turnovers.
Leah Dunn added a goal and an assist while
Alexis Townsend scored one goal.
Olivia Going collected four ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Madison Ulvenes and
Aleah Fjelstad each recorded two ground balls.
Chloe Zador finished with seven saves in the loss.
The Spartans got off to a fast start with four unanswered goals to grab a 4-0 edge less than eight minutes into the first half.
Schiano powered through the UT defense for consecutive unassisted scores to make it a 4-2 game with 18:07 left in the half.
Tampa responded with goals by Caroline Forester and Carly Voccaro to push its lead to 6-2 just past the 12:00 mark of the frame. Less than a minute later, Schiano found the back of the net again to complete her hat trick and cut the margin in half, 6-3.
The Spartans increased their lead back to four with 9:57 remaining in the first half. Dunn then connected with Townsend for a score right on the doorstep, and the Panthers went into halftime trailing 7-4.
It looked as though Tech would get back into the game early in the second half as Schiano tallied her fourth goal to make it a two-score game, 7-5, with 26:30 to go.
UT had other plans as the Spartans scored three unanswered goals to push the game to 10-5 with 15:20 remaining.
Dunn notched her first goal of the game on a nice dodge down the wing to make the score 10-6 with 5:13 to go.
One final goal by Tampa with 25 seconds left sealed the deal for the Spartans as they went on to earn their first ever win over the Panthers.
Tampa finished with a slight edge in shots (26-23), ground balls (22-19) and draw controls (10-9). The Panthers went 0-3 extra-man opportunities while both teams had 18 turnovers in the game.
Florida Tech is back in action this Saturday, Apr. 6, as the Panthers travel to Winter Park for an SSC matchup with No. 2 Rollins. That contest is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Barker Family Stadium.
For the latest news, updates and information on the Florida Tech women's lacrosse team, visit FloridaTechSports.com. Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest Panthers news by following Florida Tech Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
