#8 Tampa Drops SSC Final To Barry 2-0

TAMPA, Fla. - The second-seeded and eighth-ranked University of Tampa men's soccer fell 2-0 to fourth-seeded Barry University on Sunday in the finals of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament. The Spartans (15-2-1) and Buccaneers (14-5-1) kept the match scoreless until the tournament's Most Outstanding Player Mark Anderson notched a goal in the 84th minute to give BU the championship.

Despite outshooting the Buccaneers 23-14, the Spartans couldn't get the ball past SSC Freshman of the Year Johnny Rodrigues who made six saves in the contest. With 6:27 left on the clock, Anderson took a hard shot from 20 yards out past SSC Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Thompson. Just over three minutes later, Anderson and Mark Kilpatrick broke away on a 2-on-1 in the Tampa end, with Kilpatrick scoring the final goal to put the game away.

"There's emotion and then there is championship emotion," Spartan head coach Adrian Bush said following the game. "Today, Barry played with championship emotion and deserved the win.

Our guys seemed to have so much passion when the final whistle blew-too bad that started at 3 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. when we started the game."

The Spartans now await the D-II selection show on Monday at 7 p.m. to learn their opponent in the upcoming South Regional.

Bush continued, "Next Friday night we find out who we are. I'm confident we will be ready-just as we have been the last three years in this same situation."

2009 SSC All-Tournament Team

MOP - Mark Anderson, Barry

Johnny Rodrigues, Barry

Joao Garcia, Barry

Sascha Koettig, Barry

Rodrigo Mancenido, Barry

Lister Warren, Tampa

Pascal Milien, Tampa

Brian Fekete, Tampa

Romain Onteniente, Nova Southeastern

JD Gruenewald, Rollins

Kyle Conrad, Lynn