WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Florida Tech women's lacrosse earned its first win of the season behind a dominant second half performance as they defeated Palm Beach Atlantic 19-13 on the road Wednesday evening in West Palm Beach.
Alexis Townsend paced the Panthers with five goals on six shots.
Mollie Kaplan filled up the stat sheet with four goals, an assist, six draw controls, three caused turnovers and two ground balls.
Rachel Johnson finished with four goals, two ground balls and one caused turnover.
Caroline MacLeod added two goals and a game-high eight draw controls while
Kailee O'Brien scored two goals and collected three ground balls.
Millie Hurt had a goal and six draw controls and
Kyla Vendemia finished with one goal.
Ashley Walter guided the Panther defense with three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Olivia Going,
Kylie Morris and
Maggie Reed each recorded one caused turnover and one ground ball. With her one caused turnover, Going now has 100 for her career and becomes just the third Panther in program history to hit the mark.
Emily Harris picked up her first career win in goal while making seven saves for the Panthers.
MacLeod got the Panthers on the board less than a minute into the game with an unassisted effort. After PBA tied the game at 1-1, Townsend powered by her defender to score her first of the game and give Tech a 2-1 edge with 26:30 to go in the first half.
The Sailfish tallied three straight goals to grab a 4-2 advantage with 15:37 remaining. The Panthers responded with goals by Townsend and Kaplan to tie the game at 4-4 with 12:30 left in the half. Kaplan's tally was the 100th of her career, she becomes the fifth Panther to surpass the century mark for career goals.
PBA retook the lead 6-4 by scoring two goals in a matter of 11 seconds with 11:02 remaining in the first half.
The Panthers would answer with four unanswered tallies to grab an 8-6 lead heading into halftime. MacLeod opened the run with a free position goal at the 9:18 mark. Townsend scored her third goal on a free position and then her fourth two minutes later to put Tech up by one with 6:20 to go. Johnson buried her first goal of the game on a free position with 2:01 left to hand the Panthers a two-goal lead at the break.
Florida Tech added to their lead right off the opening draw of the second half as Kaplan corralled the draw control and found Johnson for her second goal of the game. O'Brien pushed the Panthers' advantage to 10-6 with 25:46 remaining.
After PBA ended Tech's 6-0 run, O'Brien and Johnson struck again with unassisted tallies and increased the Crimson & Gray's lead to 12-7 with 20:44 to go. The Sailfish would score back-to-back goals to trim the Panthers' lead to 12-9 with 15:52 left.
However, Tech responded with a 5-0 run, beginning with a Townsend's 5th goal of the game with 14:56 remaining. Consecutive free position goals by Hurt and Kaplan pushed the lead to 15-9. Vendemia and Johnson then tallied goals one minute apart to increase the Panthers' advantage to eight goals with 9:54 to go.
Kaplan completed her hat trick on a free position attempt with 7:21 remaining to put Tech up 18-10 and then sealed the win with her fourth goal of the game on another free position with one second to go.
With the win, Florida Tech improves to 4-0 all-time against Palm Beach Atlantic.
The Panthers finished with an advantage in shots (33-29), shots on goal (30-20) and draw controls (20-12). Tech converted on 8-11 free position attempts and were successful on 7-12 clears in the game. The Sailfish scored on 5-6 free position tries but struggled on clears, going 9-17 against the Panthers.
Next up for Florida Tech is a home game against Florida Southern this Saturday, April 17, at Panther Stadium. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
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.
