First Half Offensive Explosions Leads to Spartans First Win

Box score

Tampa, Fla. - The University of Tampa Women's Lacrosse team scored nine first half goals and held off a late rally to defeat Newberry 11-9 Tuesday night at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex. The victory is the first for the women's lacrosse program, which is in its inaugural season of competition.

The Spartans (1-3) struck first as Mackenzie Perna scored an unassisted goal five minutes into the game. The Wolves converted a free position attempt to even the score at 1-1. A minute later, Amanda Voges dodged towards the cage and put a flip shot past the goalie to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead. After a Mallory Mays goal, Emilie Barbosa converted two free position shots to give Tampa the 5-1 advantage with 15:03 left in the opening period. The Spartans scored twice more before Maggie Griffo netted an unassisted goal to extend Tampa's lead to 8-1. The scored remained that way until the 1:39 mark when Voges netted her third goal of the half to give Tampa a 9-1 lead at the break.

Morgan Cheripko won the opening draw control of the second half and the Spartans converted it into a goal as Mays found Voges for the goal. Minutes later, Cheripko scored an unassisted goal to give the Spartans an 11-1 lead with 24:40 left in the second half. Newberry (0-4) started to battle back as Alexis Cathcart scored back-to-back goals to cut the lead to 11-3. The Wolves scored three more times over the next nine minutes to cut the lead to 11-6 with 9:06 remaining. The score remained that way until the 3:41 mark when KerriAnn Barlage scored a man-up goal for the Wolves. Barlage added two more goals for the 11-9 final.

Voges finished the game with four goals, an assist and four ground balls, while Mays tallied two goals and an assist. Cheripko led the Spartans with six draw controls.

Wylie Cassidy improved to 1-2 in the cage for the Spartans. Five of her six saves in the game came in the second half.

The Spartans will return to action Thursday, March 6, when they host Mount Olive College College at 7:00 p.m. at Namoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex. Live stats and a video webcast will be available through TampaSpartans.tv.

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