MELBOURNE, Fla. - Florida Tech used a 9-3 run to overcome a second half deficit and defeat Lynn 13-9 during Sunday's senior day game at Panther Stadium.
Prior to the contest, Tech honored its three departing "seniors",
Olivia Going,
Mollie Kaplan and
Alexis Townsend. The trio had come back for their fifth year with the program and each graduated on Saturday with Master's degrees from Florida Tech. On Sunday, all three players made major contributions to help lead the Panthers to their second win of the season.
Both Kaplan and Townsend recorded seven points in the game. Kaplan had two goals and a career-high five assists, to go along with three draw controls while Townsend recorded a game-high five goals and two assists on just seven shots. Going finished with four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Caroline MacLeod had five points on four goals and an assist to go along with two ground balls, two draw controls and two caused turnovers.
Kyla Vendemia added a goal and an assist while
Rachel Johnson dished out two assists.
Kailee O'Brien tallied one goal and
Elizabeth Christ came off the bench to collect three draw controls for the Panthers.
O'Brien, Johnson and
Karly Liebendorfer combined for four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Emily Harris made 10 saves in the game and earned her second career win in goal.
Lynn jumped out to an early 2-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. Consecutive goals by MacLeod, off assists from Johnson and Kaplan, tied the game at 2-2 with 15:52 left in the first half.
LU regained a two-goal advantage, 4-2, with 10:53 to go before halftime. The Panthers cut the margin to one at the end of the half following an exciting sequence of events. After Going forced a turnover by Lynn, the Panthers cleared the ball with seconds to go. Vendemia eventually got the ball and fed Townsend, who scored just as the buzzer rang to make it a 4-3 game at halftime.
Tech struck again just 43 seconds into the second half as MacLeod scored her third goal of the day off an assist from Kaplan to tie the game at 4-4. However, Lynn pushed its lead back to two, 6-4, a few minutes later.
The Panthers answered with a quick 3-0 run to take its first lead of the game with 20:29 to go on goals by MacLeod, Townsend and Vendemia, who scored on a nifty behind the back shot right in front of the crease.
The Fighting Knights responded with another 2-0 run to regain the advantage, 8-7, with 17:56 remaining. Townsend tied the game off an assist from MacLeod, and then Tech retook the lead, 9-8, just 29 seconds later on a man-up goal by O'Brien with 14:43 to go.
The Panthers controlled the game from there, outscoring Lynn 4-1 the rest of the way. Kaplan had a hand in all four of Tech's goals down the stretch. She assisted Townsend for a pair of tallies and then scored two herself on free position tries as Florida Tech won by a four-goal margin, and avenged an earlier season overtime loss to Lynn.
The Panthers won the ground ball battle, 17-15, while Lynn finished with an edge in shots (28-26) and draw controls (12-9). LU went 11-12 on clears and Tech was successful on 12-15 clear attempts.
Florida Tech returns to Panther Stadium on Wednesday, May 5, for its regular season finale against Florida Southern. The game is set to begin at 7:30 p.m.
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