Florida Tech Panthers Defeat Tampa Spartans 9-6 In Conference Opener
By Florida Tech // April 10, 2016
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Florida Tech (9-4, 1-0 SSC) returned from a 12-day layoff to topple Sunshine State Conference rival Tampa (3-9, 0-3 SSC) by a score of 9-6 Saturday night at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex.
Caroline Dunleavy paced the Panthers with four goals on five shots. Sara Grenier added a hat trick and one assist and Jordan Grant recorded one goal and an assist. Mary Gormley tallied a goal in addition to picking up three ground balls.
Allie Modica finished with one assist to go along with a team-high four draw controls, and Sam Schiano collected four ground balls and three caused turnovers, both team-highs.
Stephanie Stuart garnered her ninth win of the season while making 10 saves in goal versus the Spartans.
Caroline Dunleavy opened the scoring off a feed from Grenier to give FIT a 1-0 lead just 1:41 into the contest. Grant would then hand the Panthers a two-goal advantage, however Amanda Voges responded by converting a free position attempt to make it 2-1 at the 5:11 mark of the first half.
Dunleavy got on the board again with 3:44 remaining to increase the lead to 3-1 at the break.
FIT scored three goals despite outshooting Tampa 17-5 in the first half. A lot of that credit goes to the Spartans’ goalkeeper Caili Guilday who made 11 saves in the opening frame.
Gormley and Grenier extended the Panthers’ advantage to 5-1 at the 25:55 mark of the second half, but Voges quickly cut the deficit back to three with her second free position tally of the night. Consecutive goals by Grenier, Dunleavy and then Grenier, again, helped balloon FIT’s lead to 8-2 with 19:26 remaining.
The Spartans concluded the contest by outscoring the Panthers 4-1 to bring the game to its final margin of three goals.
Florida Tech finished with an edge in shots (30-23) and draw controls (10-7). UT picked up more ground balls (23-18) and caused turnovers (16-7).
The Panthers continue to struggle on their free position shots, going 0-for-6 in the contest while Tampa converted 4-of-11 attempts.
Voges led the Spartans with a hat trick, and Amanda Rom added two goals to go along with four draw controls and two caused turnovers. Guilday had an impressive game between the pipes, collecting 17 saves and four loose balls.
Florida Tech resumes its conference schedule against Rollins on Wednesday, Apr. 13 at 7 p.m. ET at Florida Tech Panther Stadium.
Fans can access live coverage at www.FloridaTechSports.com/live.
