MELBOURNE, Fla. – No. 23 Florida Tech was dealt a 19-6 loss by No. 20 Saint Leo in the Panthers' home opener on Saturday at Panther Stadium.
Mollie Kaplan recorded two goals and three draw controls.
Caroline MacLeod added one goal, an assist, a game-high eight draw controls, one ground ball and one caused turnover.
Rachel Johnson,
Alexis Townsend and
Kyla Vendemia each tallied one goal in the game.
Kailee O'Brien had one assist and two draw controls and
Millie Hurt contributed one assist and one ground ball.
Olivia Going finished with one caused turnover in the game, she is now just two away from 100 career caused turnovers.
Emily Harris made six saves in the loss.
It was a back-and-forth contest during the first 10 minutes. Townsend opened up the scoring with a man-up goal off an assist from Hurt just 2:15 into the game. The Lions scored consecutive goals to grab a 2-1 lead with 23:44 left in the first half. MacLeod evened the game on a man-up tally with 22:07 to go but SLU answered less than a minute later to regain a one-goal lead.
Kaplan scored an unassisted goal, her first of the season, with 19:59 remaining to tie the score at 3-3. The Lions took over from there with eight unanswered goals to jump out to an 11-3 lead with 17 seconds to go before halftime.
The Panthers scored quickly off the ensuing draw as Vendemia found the back of the net off an assist from MacLeod to make the score 11-4 at halftime.
After SLU pushed its lead to 12-4 early in the second half, Kaplan scored her second goal off an assist from O'Brien to cut the margin to seven with 24:02 remaining. The Lions outscored Tech, 7-1, the rest of the game as the Panthers' struggles continued in the second half. Johnson provided the final goal for the Crimson & Gray with an unassisted goal at the 18:24 mark.
Saint Leo finished with an advantage in shots (31-22) and ground balls (19-8). Tech collected more draw controls (13-12) but had more turnovers in the game (14-10). The Panthers went 9-10 on clear attempts while SLU converted 14-17 tries.
Florida Tech (0-3) will look to get on track in its next game but have a tough matchup ahead as the Panthers travel to Winter Park for a bout with No. 7 Rollins on Wednesday, March 31. Start time for the contest is 7:30 p.m. at Barker Family Stadium.
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