Men’s Lacrosse face Lions in DSC Semi-Finals
Tampa, Fla - The University of Tampa men's lacrosse team will look to avenge its lone conference lost this season when they host Saint Leo in the semi-finals of the Deep South Conference Tournament, Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex. Saint Leo advanced to the semi-finals after defeating Florida Southern 10-6 on Tuesday night.
Tampa comes into this game as the DSC regular-season champions with a 9-4 record. They defeated Rollins 10-6 last Friday in their conference finale. The Spartans lead the conference in goals per game, averaging 12 goals per game, while holding opponents to 8.91 goals per game. The Spartans are led by DSC Player-of-the-Year Greg Griffo, and second-team All-DSC selection Joey McMahan and Eric Dance. Griffo leads the Spartans with 23 goals and 28 points. McMahan has dished out a team-high 13 assists and had netted hat tricks in back-to-back games, while Dance has tallied 32 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers this season. Trevor Calleja has a .589 faceoff win percentage this season.
Saint Leo comes into tomorrow game 8-4 record finished with a 5-2 conference record. Saint Leo overcame an early three goal deficit and outscored Florida Southern 9-2 over the final 40 minutes of that game. The Lions are led by first-team All-DSC player Matt Obermeyer, Chris Caiazza, and John Larongo. Obermeyer leads the Lions with 29 goals and 34 points, while Caiazza has tallied 25 goals and 31 points. Larongo has gone 95-142 on faceoffs this season and picked up a team high 50 ground balls. Goalie Dave Moore, DSC Freshmen-of-the-Year has made 150 saves this season.
When these two teams clashed earlier this season, Saint Leo jumped out to a quick start taking a 5-1 advantage at halftime. Caiazza's goal to start the third quarter extended the Lions lead to 6-1. The Spartans started to battle back as M.J. Lorenzo found Ryan Becker for a man-up goal to cut the deficit to 6-2 after the third quarter. Tampa scored four unanswered goals to start the fourth quarter and tie the game 6-6. After a Lions goal, Jake Schmidt netted the equalizer to send the game into overtime. Caiazza scored the game-winning goal at the 2:23 mark in overtime to give Saint Leo the 9-8 win.
The winner of this game will play the winner of the Catawba- Lenoir-Rhyne game, Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Rollins.
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