Florida Southern Storms Past Tampa in Sunday Matchup

LAKELAND, Fla. – Continuing Sunshine State Conference action in a weather-delayed Sunday contest, the University of Tampa women's lacrosse team fell to No. 11 Florida Southern College by an 18-7 score at Bryant Field.

The visiting Spartans drop to 3-8, 0-2 in Sunshine State Conference action while the hosting Mocs improve to 9-3, 1-0 in SSC play.

Junior Emilie Barbosa led UT in scoring, netting a pair of goals while freshman Rachel Crawford scored a goal and assisted another Spartan score.

Sophomore Amanda Rom secured 7-of-10 UT draw controls while defender Lauren Ferguson and goal keeper Caili Guilday combined for five caused turnovers.  Senior Guilday (3-8) finished with nine saves and seven ground balls to lead the Spartans in the net.

Midfielder Allie Popelar was the first to score for Tampa, muscling in an unassisted goal after the Mocs scored a pair of quick goals.  Tampa's leading-scorer Amanda Voges would pick-up her 21^st goal of the season with 24:16 in the first half thanks to a strong pass from sophomore Madison Creech. 

Sophomore Natalie Carraway added an unassisted goal before the 20 minute mark, but FSC was able to keep Tampa off the board for the next 15 minutes. 

Attacker Barbosa pressured her FSC counterpart to force a turnover and quickly scooped up the ground ball and sent it to the back of the Mocs net for a goal.  The Spartans could not match the torrid offense of the Mocs as Florida Southern ended the half with a 12-4 lead.

FSC continued its barrage in the second period, adding four goals to take a commanding 16-4 lead. Freshman Liz Kramer picked up her first collegiate goal with 15:26 left in the contest.

Captain Barbosa struck again off a feed from freshman Crawford as the sixth score for the Spartans.  Fellow attacker Crawford converted a free-position attempt to net the final goal for UT in the contest.

FSC maintained offensive control of the contest, finishing with an 18-7 win over Tampa.  Attacker Emily Santoli led the Mocs with five goals while senior Grace Donovan secured a hat-trick.

Tampa will continue SSC action, hosting the Panthers of Florida Tech on Saturday, April 9 for a 7:30 p.m. start.  The Spartans will honor the contributions of three student-athletes for their Senior Day festivities with a pregame ceremony.  Live stats as well as a live video webcast will be made available through www.tampaspartans.com.

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