Palm Beach Central alum Sophia Scichilone 4A

via Florida Tech press release/website, by Alex Henderson

BOX SCORE

Panther’s Pickup First Home Win of Season Against Anderson

by Alex Henderson

MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Florida Tech women’s lacrosse program picked up its first home win of the season on Saturday night against undefeated Anderson who was 5-0 entering the contest. The Panthers led the close contest the whole time as they took down the Trojans 11-8.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: #25 Florida Tech 11, Anderson (S.C.) 8
Records: Florida Tech (3-3, 0-0 SSC) | Anderson (5-1, 3-0 SAC)
Locations: Rick Stottler Field| Melbourne, Fla.

FIRST QUARTER:

• Carly Niro opened the game scoring the first goal for either side 1:37 into the contest.
• Alicia Cannon of Anderson answered back, scoring just under 20 seconds later to tie it 1-1.
• Kayla Minton would be set up by Sophia Scichilone to find the back of the net less than a minute later as the game got off to a hot start.
• Rayne Dobson of Anderson managed to pick up the Trojan’s final tying goal of the game with 10:02 to play in the first.
• Tech rallied for three straight goals as Niro picked up her second goal of the game with Scichilone recording her second assist in the contest.
• Sofie Bender and Michaela Wittman would both score woman-up goals with Benders coming off a free-position attempt and giving the Crimson and Gray and 5-2 lead over Anderson after 15 minutes of play.

SECOND QUARTER:

• Ava Skeffington’s first goal came at the 12:31 mark in the seconds to make it a two-goal game.
• Phoebe Hurt scored her only goal of the game on a woman-up free-position goal before Caroline Finn tallied on a goal for the Panthers less than a minute later to put the Panthers ahead 7-3 with 10:10 to play in the third.
• Cailey Canessa would go on to make two saves off free-position shots to leave the Trojans scoreless for the remainder of the half the Panther led 7-3 at the half.

THIRD QUARTER:

• Niro’s second goal of the game came from another assist by Scichilone as Tech led by five.
• Anderson would score back-to-back goals, cutting its deficit to three goals with 4:23 remaining in the third.
• Finn’s second goal of the night came a woman-up before Skeffington scored her third goal of the game with 49 seconds remaining in the third as the Panthers led 9-6 after 45 minutes.

FOURTH QUARTER:

• Liebendorfer joined the Panthers goal scorers on a woman-up free-position goal to make it a 10-6 Florida Tech game.
• Anderson answered back with two quick goals as Skeffington scored her fourth goal for the Trojans to bring them back to within two goals with 10:22 left to play.
• In goal, Canessa stopped four shots in the final 10 minutes of the game before Niro scored her fourth goal of the game with 1:44 to play to secure the Panther’s 11-8 victory as time expired on the clock giving Tech its first home win of the season.

NOTABLE PANTHERS:

• Cailey Canessa picked up 11 saves while allowing just eight goals against Anderson giving her a .579 save percentage in the game.
• Carly Niro recorded five points from four goals and one assist.
• Sophia Scichilone tallied four points all coming off assists.
• Annabel Frey and Millie Hurt both recorded four ground balls while Frey also led the team with three caused turnovers.
• Emma Angelo led the team at the draw circle winning five of the Panther’s 13 draw control wins.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE

• Florida Tech wins the inaugural meeting between the Panthers and Trojans.
• With her one assist Carly Niro now has the eight most assists in program history passing Molly Kaplan (2017-2021).
• With her first save of the game, Canessa recorded the 100^th save of her career becoming the third Panther in Program history to record 100+ career saves.
• Anderson narrowly outshot Florida Tech 25-24.
• The Trojans put up 19 shots on goal to the Panthers 17 shots on goal.
• Canessa outsaved the duo of Ava Drath and Kora Turner recording 11 saves herself to Drath and Turner’s combined six saves.
• Cailey Canessa moves to .500 on the season at 3-3 while Ava Drath records her first loss of the season in goal moving to 5-1 for 2024.
• Anderson found themselves turning the ball over 15 times compared to Tech’s 11 turnovers.
• The Panthers won the clears battle going 18-19 on clear attempts while Anderson managed to go 19-23 on clears.
• for ground balls, Florida Tech picked a total of 20 ground balls compared to the Trojans nine.
• On free-position shots Tech was 4-6 whole Anderson went 3-6.

UP NEXT: Florida Tech will return continue home action on Saturday, March 9th to take on Holy Family in the Teams Headstrong Foundation Hair Havoc Game at Rick Stottler Field with the first draw scheduled for 1:00 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.