Royals Rout Spartans to Conclude Road Trip

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The University of Tampa women's lacrosse team suffered a 15-4 loss to No. 16 Queens College (N.C.) on Sunday afternoon at Dickson Field. The Spartans fall to 0-3 on the season while the Royals open their 2016 campaign with a 1-0 record.

UT saw four athletes score goals as Allie Popelar and Emilie Barbosa converted free-position attempts while Shannon Sweeney and Amanda Rom added goals for the Spartans.

The Royals scored the first goal of the contest as Kelly Dowd nicked a pass from Abigail Paulus to give Queens a 1-0 lead in the first five minutes of play.  At 22 minutes, Queens senior Brittany Larranaga converted a free-position attempt to increase their lead to 2-0.

UT midfielder Popelar had possession of the ball while a Queens athlete committed a shooting-space violation.  The freshman would line-up at the left hash-mark for a free-position attempt and convert the shot for her second goal of the season.  The goal pulled UT within one as the Royals led 2-1.

Royals attacker Maggie Masters found the back of the net on a feed from Paulus to increase the Royal lead to 4-1 with just under 12 minutes in the first half.  Masters would add another goal moments later to give her team a 5-1 advantage over the Spartans.

Midfielder Sweeney scored a man-up goal with 6:40 remaining in the first half to push the deficit to 6-2 in favor of the Royals.  Minutes later, Spartan attacker Barbosa found the back of the net on a successfully converted free-position attempt to cut the Royals lead to 6-3.

QC would add another three goals in the opening period to conclude the half with a 9-3 advantage.  Senior goalkeeper Caili Guilday notched seven saves in the first stanza while picking up a caused turnover and a groundball for UT.  Defender Marissa Killpack forced another Queens turnover to lead the defense in the half.

The two squads battled for the opening minutes of the second period, trading shots before Queens scored to increase its lead to 10-3.

A series of Queens scores pushed the margin to a 13-3 before Rom scored on a strong pass from Amanda Voges.  The goal marks her fourth of the season and pulled the Spartans to a 13-4 deficit.  The Royals answered with a goal from Larranaga to regain a 10-point lead.

Queens would conclude the contest with a 15-4 win over Tampa to pick up its first win of the season.

Queens netminder Christine Wiese (1-0) earned the win, allowing four goals while picking up a pair of saves.  UT goalkeeper Guilday (0-3)  was credited with the loss after allowing 15 goals while notching 12 saves.

UT will return home to host Findlay on March 3 at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex for a 7:30 p.m. start time. Live stats as well as a live video webcast will be made available through www.tampaspartans.com as well as the new UT Spartans Front Row app, available on the iTunes App Store and through Google Play.

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