thanks to both Daniel Supraner of FIT and UT Athletics for sending in their recaps   Daniel Supraner:   No. 14 Panthers Come Up Short Against No. 9 Spartans 10-8 Loss ends FIT’s shot at hosting conference tournament, will head back to Tampa for semifinal round   TAMPA, Fla. (Men’s Lacrosse) – It was a hard fought contest between Florida Tech (11-3, 3-2 SSC) and Tampa (13-2, 5-0 SSC) on a humid Friday night at Naimoli Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The Spartans escaped with a physical 10-8 victory over the Panthers in what could be a preview of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament final next week. With the loss, FIT drops its shot at the No. 1 overall seed and the opportunity to host the SSC Tournament on April 24-26. Instead, Tampa garnered the top seed and will host, while Florida Tech will enter the conference championships as the No. 2 seed. Junior Brian Bacarella paced the Panthers with three goals and one assist while senior Zach Wynne added one goal and two assists. Sophomore Charlie Morrisette recorded one goal and two assists and junior Jason Terry finished with two goals. FIT struck first in the game when Morrisette found Bacarella open on the crease for a man-up goal. Less than two minutes later, Bacarella fired in another shot to push the Panthers lead to 2-0 with 5:58 left in the first quarter. Tampa responded with two goals by Sean Giampietro and Zak Goldbach to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the second period. Giampietro opened the second with another goal to give Tampa its first lead of the game, but one minute later junior Nick Wynne crossed up his defender and fired a bouncer passed A.J. Arnold to tie the score at 3-3. Chris Vetter put the Spartans back on top with 1:51 remaining in the half, however, the Panthers answered again with Bacarella’s third goal of the game. Goldbach scored off an unsettled situation with 39 seconds left on the clock to give Tampa a 5-4 lead at halftime. Tampa opened the third quarter with two straight goals by Mike Morris and Vetter to push the Spartans to their largest lead of the game at 7-4. Zach Wynne and Morrisette connected to bring the Panthers within two goals, but Matt Bilak scored for Tampa to push the lead back to three. Zach Wynne then found Morrisette and Terry for two goals within a span of 20 seconds to bring FIT back to within one, however, Daniel Soviero scored with 1:57 left in the third to hand Tampa a 9-7 advantage heading into the final quarter of play. With 8:10 left in the fourth, Bacarella found Terry for an absolute laser to the top corner to decrease the Panthers’ deficit to one goal. After several missed opportunities by FIT, Tampa won the ball back and Giampietro scored with 2:27 left on the clock to seal the victory for the Spartans. “We had another game where we took a lot of shots but just couldn’t convert on our opportunities,” stated head coach Ryan McAleavey. “We came out a little sluggish and that can’t happen against a good team like Tampa. Our team went 1-for-9 on man-up opportunities. If we had scored on two more of those man-ups, we could have come away with the win.” The Panthers outshot the Spartans (42-39) and won the battle for ground balls (33-27). Sophomore Travis Wunder was impressive at the faceoff X for the Panthers, winning 15-of-22 attempts against two of the top faceoff specialists in the conference from Tampa. “We need to come out ready to play on Friday,” said McAleavey. “We don’t know who our opponent is yet, but once we do it will all be about winning that next game and getting us to the conference championship.” Florida Tech will head back to Naimoli Stadium for the semifinals of the SSC Tournament on Friday, April 24. The Panthers’ opponent will be determined by Saturday’s game between Lynn and Saint Leo. If Lynn win, then FIT will face Rollins, and if Saint Leo wins, then Florida Tech takes on Florida Southern. Live coverage for the SSC Championships can be found at FloridaTechSports.com.   Box Score: http://www.floridatechsports.com/media/2014-15/mlacrosse/stats/fitm14.htm 2015 Schedule: http://www.floridatechsports.com/mlacrosse/schedule/ 2015 Roster: http://www.floridatechsports.com/mlacrosse/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   UT Athletics:   Spartans Skin Panthers To Claim Consecutive Conference Titles 4/18/2015 TAMPA, FLA – The No. 9 University of Tampa Spartans defeated the No.14 Florida Tech Panthers Friday night at a crowded Naimoli Family Athletic Complex by a final score of 10-8. The game was a back, and forth affair with the Spartans outlasting the Panthers after a late goal by Tampa’s Sean Giampietro sealed the game with just 2:27 left in play. Florida Tech will fall to 11-3, 3-2 to close out regular season play. Tampa improves to 13-2, 5-0 on the season the victory marks the second consecutive Sunshine State Conference regular season championship, and fourth straight after winning two consecutive Deep South Conference Championships. UT’s offense was led by a group of unsung heroes as the FIT defense neutralized the offense’s usual contributors. Leading the way for Tampa’s offense was Sean Giampietro and Zak Goldbach, who tallied five goals combined on the night. Also contributing to the offensive effort was Daniel Soviero, Chris Vetter, Mat Bilak and Mike Morris. The offense posted a clearance rate of .923 and fired off 39 shots on the night for a 462 shooting %. The Panthers opened up the scoring with two goals by Brian Bacarella to take an early lead. The Spartans quickly answered back with two goals of their own by Goldbach and Giampietro minutes later. Both sides would trade scores until the half where Tampa held a 5-4 lead. Second half action started with a bang as Tampa put away two goals early in the third period. The teams would trade scores proving they’re worthy of their national rankings. FIT would score two consecutive goals before UT answered with their own goal. The entire match was a hard fought battle with neither side conceding each score more meaningful than the last. The Panthers put up a hard fought battle, but eventually the deficit was too much for them to overcome. Stepping up for the Spartans on the defensive end were Charlie Cummins and Jon McGowan. Cummins gobbled up five groundballs on his way to causing four turnovers. McGowan also caused fits for the Panthers causing two turnovers and scooping up five groundballs of his own. Also playing great tenacious defense was Nick Balzano, Luke Posner, and Nick Ferriero. As a unit, the defense caused 10 turnovers and collected 27 groundballs. When asked about his team’s performance coach Rory Whipple said he was ” very proud the way his players stepped up to the challenge”. Whipple later went on to credit their success to Arnold’s phenomenal play between the pipes posting 15 saves and .652 save %. He also expressed how excited the program was about earning the No.1 seed and hosting the conference tournament. The Spartans return to action April 24 in the first leg of the SSC Tournament Semi-final. The game time and opponent for Tampa has yet to be determined, but will either be Rollins College or Florida Southern based on current standings. Live stats and broadcast will be available for fans to follow the action from home. Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) andInstragram (tampaspartans). UT also offers blast, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com Related Item: Box Score Visit tampaspartans.com for the latest news and info on University of Tampa Athletics.