via FSC website/press releases

#2 Women’s Lacrosse Unveils its Road Map to the Spring Festival

LAKELAND, Fla. – The second-ranked Florida Southern College women’s lacrosse team unveiled its road map to the 2024 NCAA Division II Spring Festival, which features a mid-year rematch of the National Semifinal against Pace University, the defending National Champions. The Moccasins will play 17 games on the year, eight of which will be played at Berend Field, against 13 teams that finished the 2023 season inside the top-25 of the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Coaches Poll.

Florida Southern will face off against No. 1 Pace March 7 to highlight the toughest schedule in women’s lacrosse where the Mocs open against No. 11 Flagler in St. Augustine (Feb. 14) before taking on No. 9 UIndy in a neutral site game in Huntsville, Ala. (Feb. 16). Florida Southern will close the trip to Alabama against the University of Alabama in Huntsville (Feb. 18) rounding out three games in a five-day span.

The first home game of the season is against preseason No. 7 Adelphi (Feb. 25) where the two teams square off for the 10^th time in program history with the Panthers holding the 5-4 edge. Florida Southern topped Adelphi last season, 15-10, after a three-year hiatus of the matchup. The Mocs first win over the Panthers came in the 2016 national championship game, 8-7.

Florida Southern plays eight games in the month of March, opening with No. 13 Wingate (March 2) and No. 10 Regis (CO) (March 4) at home before taking on No. 1 Pace (March 7) and No. 21 Mercy (March 9) on the road in New York.

The Mocs close the month at home with three of four games against ranked opponents: Lee (March 14), No. 20 Bentley (March 16), No. 25 Saint Leo (March 20), and the defending Sunshine State Conference Champions No. 4 Tampa (March 29) setting up a rematch of the conference championship and regional championship game with the Spartans.

Five games in the month of April for the Moccasins with four road trips and one home game, all Sunshine State Conference showdowns. Florida Southern travels to No. 17 Embry-Riddle (April 3) and to No. 8 Rollins (April 6) before hosting the final home game of the 2024 season against Florida Tech (April 10). The final two road trips are to West Palm Beach to face off against Palm Beach Atlantic (April 13) and to Boca Raton to tango with No. 22 Lynn (April 17).

Florida Southern eyes its league leading 11^th conference title (six regular season, and four tournament) with the SSC tournament slated for April 20^th, 25^th, and 28^th, sites and times to be determined. Following the SSC tournament, the NCAA Division II tournament will start with regional games on May 16 and May 18 while the national championship is part of the 2024 spring festival in Winter Park, Fla. (hosted by Rollins College) with the national semifinal on May 23 and the championship on May 25.

2024 Florida Southern Women’s Lacrosse Home Schedule

*rankings based off the May 2023 final IWLCA/ILWomen NCAA DII Top-25 rankings

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Florida Southern Among Nation’s Best for Academic Success Rate

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Florida Southern College’s Department of Athletics received the NCAA Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence after posting a 92-percent Academic Success Rate for student-athletes graduating within six years of eligibility for the period 2013-16. The Moccasins were one of 44 schools and just one of five Sunshine State Conference schools to be present on the list where the Mocs finished in the top-26 of all Division II institutions.
 
The NCAA Academic Success Rate (ASR) is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of initial college enrollment and includes virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletic scholarships.
 
It marks the fifth-straight time for the Moccasins to appear on the NCAA DII ASR list where Florida Southern posted a 92-percent graduation rate from 2013-16 for student-athletes that had graduated within six years of original enrollment.
 
Florida Southern was joined by Barry University, Eckerd College, Florida Institute of Technology and Rollins College as the only five SSC institutions on the 2023 list. The Northeast-10 Conference, Sunshine State Conference, and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference boast five or more athletics programs with ASRs of 90-percent or higher. Earlier this month, the NCAA announced that SSC member institutions combined for an ASR of 89-percent, setting the league’s all-time high. The mark places the SSC first among the 23 Division II leagues.
 
About the Academic Success Rate
Academic Success Rate is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of initial college enrollment and includes virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletic scholarships.
 
The Division II ASR also captures about 40-percent more college athletes than the federal graduation rate. Unlike the Federal Graduation Rate, the ASR also counts student-athletes who transfer to a school after initial enrollment elsewhere and removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible. The national ASR is 76-percent for student-athletes who entered college from 2013 through 2016.
 
Regardless of which measure is used, Division II college athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. The federal rate for the 2016 entering class of student-athletes was 60-percent, compared to 53-percent for the general student body.