via press release  .  .  .  photo by Ryan Seelof   Panthers face NAIA-Sun Conference member Ave Maria on Saturday at 1 p.m. MELBOURNE, Fla. (Women’s Lacrosse) – Following a statement win over Roberts Wesleyan in its season opener, Florida Tech hits the road to take on Ave Maria Saturday at 1p.m. ET. The Panthers defeated the Redhawks 16-11 on Wednesday, exacting revenge on last season’s 19-11 loss to RWC in FIT’s inaugural game. Florida Tech outscored Roberts Wesleyan 10-5 in the first half, thanks to hat tricks by Sara Grenier and Allie Modica. After the Redhawks scored consecutive goals to start the second half, FIT responded with four straight by four different players to blow the game open. RWC cut it to five with 10:52 left in the second however the Panthers hung tough and held their opponent scoreless the rest of the game to earn the victory. Grenier finished with a game-high five goals and one assist and Modica found the back of the net four times. Caroline Dunleavy added two goals and an assist and Stephanie Stuart stopped eight shots in goal to earn the win. Several freshmen had strong performances in their first action donning the Crimson and Gray. Sarah Kapinos tallied two goals and one assist, Jordan Grant scored twice and Sam Schiano dished out an assist to go along with five groundballs and a game-high seven draw controls. Florida Tech outshot the Redhawks 38-24, including a 23-12 edge in the first half. The Panthers collected more groundballs (21-12) and draw controls (15-14) than their opponent, however little mistakes plagued the young squad as they finished with 23 turnovers in the game. Head coach Corinne Desrosiers was pleased with her team’s energy and effort in the season opening victory. However, she believes there are still areas for improvement as they head into their upcoming game against Ave Maria on Saturday. “We are hoping to get out there and improve on the groundballs and draw control play that we lacked in our season opener,” she stated. “We feel like we are a lot stronger in those areas than how we played and we have been addressing it at practice. “Defensively, we need to tighten up our system. We were beat the same way a few times on Wednesday and we have to work harder to eliminate those repeat mistakes. Our hope is to get some new legs out there and play around with the lineups a bit as well as we continue the even distribution of statistics.” FIT completely dominated Ave Maria a year ago, winning 18-0 on Feb. 21, 2015 in Melbourne. In that matchup, Florida Tech had 10 different players find the back of the net on just 25 shots, while the Gyrenes only got off six total shots the entire game. Dunleavy and Grenier each finished with a hat trick in that first meeting, while Modica also tallied three goals but was more of a distributor, posting a game-high six assists. Ave Maria, which plays its season opener Saturday, is coming off an inaugural season in which the Gyrenes went 3-10 overall and 2-5 in the NAIA’s Sun Conference. This season, the lacrosse program has a new coach at the helm in Courtney Burhans. She comes to AMU after spending three seasons as head coach of Manhattanville College. Lydia Buckley returns for AMU this season after pacing the Gyrenes with 21 goals and 35 draw controls last year. Abby Castro, an NWLL All-American Honorable Mention a year ago, scored 14 goals last season in addition to recording team-bests with 20 caused turnovers and five assists. Hannah Camerota is back in goal for Ave Maria after starting all 13 games in 2015. Links to live coverage, courtesy of Ave Maria, can be accessed at FloridaTechSports.com.   Live Coverage: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/avemaria/ 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