No. 5 Spartans Skin Mocs In SSC Semi-Final

TAMPA, Fla. - The No. 5 University of Tampa men's lacrosse team squared off with the Florida Southern College Mocs in the second semi-final fixture of the 2016 Sunshine State Conference Tournament Friday night at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex. UT would pick up the win 15-9.

Florida Southern jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the early goings, but the Spartans would eventually settle down and rattle off seven straight scores to take an 8-3 lead into the locker room at the half. 

The second half of play was the same song, but just a different verse. Head Coach Rory Whipple's side picked up the action where they left off in the first half as the team seemed to feed off each other as they went on a 5-0 run to start the second half giving them a 13-3 lead, their largest of the contest. Florida Southern would answer with a score of their own at the 3:09 mark as Cody Dyer and Lucas Claude connected to find the back of the net on a man-up opportunity. 

The Spartan attack was led by the usual suspects in Andrew Kew, Jake Schmidt, and Conor Whipple. Schmidt would tally three goals, on six shots with a shots on goal percentage of 83.3. Whipple turned in what has become a standard performance for him with one goal and dishing out three assists for a total of four points. Kew would lead the scoring efforts with six goals on nine shots registering a shots on goal percentage of 77.7. The six-goal performance by the Oakville, Ont. native brings his season total up to 53 which is a new school record and ranks as the second-most in a single season by a player. 

Defensively, UT turned in a stellar performance outhustling and outworking the Mocs' defense as they scooped up 38 groundballs and forced seven caused turnovers compared to FSC's 25 groundballs and three caused turnovers. Senior captain Marty Heyn had two big caused turnovers during critical possessions in the game. Also stepping up big for the defense was junior Charlie Cummins, who hauled in two groundballs and had one caused turnover.

At the faceoff X, Tampa won the battle posting a winning percentage of 57.1 as a team. Alex Patton led the efforts winning 13 of 21 faceoffs taken registering a winning percentage of 61.9; Patton would also go on to scoop up seven groundballs in the matchup. Also taking faceoffs for the Spartans were Noah Menendez (2-5), Ryan Podlovits (1-1) and Nick Page (0-1).

Tampa played their entire stable of goalkeepers with each one seeing significant minutes, however picking up the win and improving to 9-1 on the season was junior A.J. Arnold. The South Borough, Mass native tallied six saves and posted a save percentage of 66.7 in just under 35 minutes of action. Also turning in an impressive performance in net was sophomore keeper James Davison, who made six saves on seven shots faced in just eight minutes of play.

Following the victory Tampa improves to 13-2 on the season, and advances to the SSC Championship game on Sunday, where they will face the No. 2 seeded Rollins College Tars. 
Game time is set for 2 PM, Live stats, as well as a live web broadcast will be available for fans to follow all the action.
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