Tampa Falls to West Florida in NCAA Regional Final
PENSACOLA, Fla. - The No. 21 University of Tampa (15-4-4) women's soccer team ended its season with a 2-0 loss to No. 2 University of West Florida (21-1) in the NCAA Division II South Regional Final on Friday.
"While disappointed with the result today, I'm immensely proud of our team this year and how far we went with such a young group," says head coach Gerry Lucey. "It has been a very successful season and our team has grown from strength to strength."
West Florida recorded the game's first goal in the fourth minute when Sashana Campbell took a give-and-go and successfully converted the goal. Shelby Bush added a second-half goal with 19-minutes to play to add insurance for the Argonauts. Chelsea Palmer assisted both UWF goals.
"We have up a silly goal after 4 minutes through poor tackling which obviously was disappointing," states Lucey. "To UWF's credit, they finished the opportunity very well an held the ascendency in the early part of first half. We began to get more into the game and really established ourselves with a dominating second half and with some better decisions could've got back into the game."
Leading scorer Lauren Moore finished with three shots for Tampa, including one on goal as freshman Jess Frank also tallied three shots, one on target. The Spartans outshot the Argonauts 12-11, with the home team holding a 4-3 edge in shots on goal.
Kori Butterfield also notched two saves while playing the entire match in goal. UT also held a 9-5 advantage in corner kicks.
"Kori (Butterfield) pulled off an excellent save from a penalty midway thru the second half and we gained more momentum," comments Lucey. "We had a couple of decent looks at goal and then unfortunately gave up another goal off of a corner kick."
The Spartans conclude a successful 2012 campaign where they won the program's third straight Sunshine State Conference tournament championship while advancing to the regional final for the third straight year.
"We will bounce back stronger from this setback," believes Lucey. "We had 7 freshmen and sophomores on the field the entire second half and I'm excited about the future of our program."
Tampa will look forward to a 2013 season as it will lose just one senior starter as Courtney Peffley departs following a prolific career. Of the 10 starters UT will return, seven are currently freshman and sophomores.
"I'd like to thank Peffers (Courtney Peffley) for 4 wonderful years of great memories," states Lucey. "She has been a wonderful player for UT and I'm so proud of how she has grown. We would also like to thank Nicole (Munnelly) for her two years of service too. Nicole is the prime example of an honest team player and has been exemplary in her time here."
"UWF is a very strong opponent and we wish them well in representing our region this Sunday," says Lucey.
Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) and Instragram (tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.