Skip to main content

FIT Women: Panthers Fall Short in Loss to No. 4 Tars

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
via press release – photo by Ryan Seeloff   MELBOURNE, Fla. (Women’s Lacrosse) – Florida Tech (9-5, 1-1 SSC) held its own with Sunshine State Conference foe Rollins (13-1, 3-0 SSC) throughout much of the game Wednesday, but in the second half the Panthers were unable to match the scoring and depth of the 4th-ranked Tars and eventually fell 14-10 at Florida Tech Panther Stadium. Allie Modica paced FIT with four goals and one assist. Caroline Dunleavy and Sara Grenier each tallied two goals and one assist and Leah Dunn added a goal and an assist. Sam Schiano led all players with five draw controls and five caused turnovers, while the defensive trio of Brittney Embree, Arielle Gunderson andAllie Wood combined for nine ground balls and five caused turnovers. Despite allowing 14 goals Stephanie Stuart (9-5) was an absolute force in the cage. The sophomore goalkeeper finished with 11 saves, including six alone on free position attempts. It did not take long for the Tars to get on the board as Kristina Coppolino found Tyler Thomas for the opening goal just 36 seconds into the game. Thomas added another at the 24:49 mark to give RC a 2-0 advantage. Two minutes later, Modica earned her 100th career point when she assisted Mary Gormley for the Panthers’ first goal of the game. Dunleavy’s unassisted tally then tied the score at 2-2 with 21:47 remaining in the first half. The teams exchanged the next four goals, the final coming off the crosse of Modica, to make it 4-4 with 7:01 to go in the opening frame. RC would score two more times during the closing minutes of the half to take a 6-4 lead into the break. A late yellow card called against the Panthers with 10 seconds left in the first half gave Rollins a woman-up advantage to start the second. Paige Brock made good use of the opportunity by scoring her first of the game, just 13 seconds into the half, to increase the Tars’ lead to three. Grenier quickly answered with a fast break goal off the ensuing draw to make the score 7-5. Free position goals by RC’s Kallie German and Modica kept the margin at two with just over 25 minutes remaining on the clock. Over the next 13:53, Rollins would score four unanswered goals, including three off FIT turnovers, to extend the lead to 12-6 at the 11:12 mark. Grenier had a hand in the Panthers’ next two goals, first speeding by the Tars’ defense for her second tally of the game, and then found Dunn on a cut across the crease to get the margin to four with 6:42 remaining. However, RC then responded with two goals of its own to make it 14-8 with 1:56 left. FIT would add two more scores, on goals by Dunleavy and Modica, before time ran out. Even though they were handed their first SSC defeat of the season, head coach Corinne Desrosiers was pleased with the Panthers’ performance against one of the top teams in the nation. “Honestly, we love playing Rollins, they are an excellent team with such great chemistry and it makes us better to compete against them,” stated Desrosiers. “We could play the what-ifs with a closer game like the one we had but, at the end of it all, it was just like one of the refs said – ‘good lacrosse both ways’. It was a lot of fun. We will look to tweak some things from tonight and turn them into positives moving forward to Florida Southern.” Rollins finished with more shots (32-24) and ground balls (24-21) in the contest, while Florida Tech collected more draw controls (14-12). The Tars struggled on their free position attempts, thanks to Stuart, converting on just 3-of-12. The Panthers, however, went 2-of-3 on their attempts in the game. German led RC with four points on two goals and two assists while Thomas recorded a hat trick. Brock and Coppolino notched two goals and one assist apiece. Kaitlin Prince collected a game-high six ground balls to go along with two caused turnovers. Malorie Olin (13-1) made nine saves in the win. Florida Tech looks to bounce-back in its final home game of the season Saturday, Apr. 16 against No. 8 Florida Southern at 4 p.m. ET at Florida Tech Panther Stadium. Fans can access live coverage at www.FloridaTechSports.com/live.   Box Score: http://www.floridatechsports.com/wlacrosse/boxscore/2015-16/5401/4-rollins-vs-florida-tech-04-13-2016/ 2016 Schedule: http://www.floridatechsports.com/wlacrosse/schedule/ 2016 Roster: http://www.floridatechsports.com/wlacrosse/roster/   Daniel Supraner Assistant Director of Athletic Communications Florida Tech Athletics 150 W. University Blvd. Melbourne, Fla. 32901 Work: 321-674-7484 Fax: 321-984-8529    

Sponsored