LAKELAND, Fla. – The 14
th-ranked and third-seeded Florida Southern men's lacrosse team will travel to 10
th-ranked and second-seeded Rollins Thursday night for the semifinals of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament. The 2022 SSC Tournament appearance is the first for the Moccasins since 2017 and fourth appearance overall since the SSC began sponsoring men's lacrosse in 2014.
Location: Winter Park, Fla.
Stadium: Barker Family Stadium at Cahall-Sandspur Field
Opening Faceoff: 8:00 p.m.
Coverage: Live Stats –
www.fscmocs.com/stats; Video –
www.fscmocs.com/live
3rd Seed – The Moccasins – Roster | Schedule | Coaches | Statistics
No. 14 Florida Southern finished the 2022 regular season with an 11-5 record including 5-2 in Sunshine State Conference play. The 11 wins tied a school record for most wins in a single season while the five SSC victories set a new school mark for most SSC wins in a season.
The Mocs have won seven of their last nine contests with their two losses coming at No. 1 Tampa and on the road at then-No. 14 Florida Tech 14-13 in overtime. All five of the Mocs losses have come to top-15 ranked programs while FSC boasts a pair of top-10 victories including a 12-10 victory over then-No. 1 Le Moyne at home and a 16-11 victory over No. 10 Rollins.
Senior
Jeff Atlas leads the Mocs offensive attack as he has already set the single season and career records for assists and points in 2022. He has 43 goals, 45 assists and 88 points this season while ranking fourth in the NCAA in assists per game (2.81) and fifth in points per game (5.50). He leads the SSC in both categories as well. Fellow senior
Sean Nolan has been the go-to scorer for the Mocs as he has already tallied 51 goals this season to go along with 24 assists for 75 points. He currently ranks 14
th in the NCAA in goals per game (3.19) and 18
th in points per game (4.69). He ranks second in the SSC in goals per game and third in points per game. Atlas was named SSC Offensive Player of the Week three times this season while Nolan earned the honor this past Monday. The Mocs had one other OPOTW and that was freshman
Matt Flammenspeck who ranks third on the team in goals with 27 this season.
On the defensive side of the field, sophomores
Nick Shannon and
Zac Fitzgerald patrol opposite sides of the field and have caused a combined 56 turnovers this season including 33 from Shannon and 23 from Fitzgerald. Shannon ranks 10
th in the NCAA in caused turnovers per game (2.06) while Fitzgerald ranks 47
th (1.44). The duo along with the rest of their defensive teammates are backed up by senior goalie
Maxwell Freestone who has posted a 9-4 record this season with an 11.51 goals against average. He has faced over 500 shots this season and has a .522 saves percentage with 154 total stops. He was named SSC Defensive Player of the Week twice while Shannon brought home the final SSC DPOTW honor this past Monday.
Senior
Kevin Horwitz has been one of the top faceoff specialists in the entire country this season as he has had a record-breaking 2022. He has obliterated both the single season and career records at FSC from ground balls and faceoff victories. He currently has a team-best 172 ground balls, over 80 more than the previous record, and 294 faceoff victories, nearly 100 more than the previous record holder. He currently ranks fourth in the NCAA in ground balls per game (10.75) and seventh in faceoff winning percentage (.670).
As a team, the Mocs lead the SSC in goals per game (15.75), assists per game (9.69) and points per game (25.44). The Mocs also lead the conference in ground balls per game (39.75) and faceoff winning percentage (.654) while ranking second in saves percentage (.519) and third in goals against average (11.32). Overall in the NCAA the team ranks second in total assists (155) and total points (407) while ranking third in total ground balls (636). The Mocs also rank fourth in faceoff winning percentage (.654), sixth in assist per game (9.69), seventh in points per game (25.44) and eighth in ground balls per game (39.75) and scoring offense (15.75).
2nd Seed – The Tars – Roster | Schedule | Coaches | Statistics
No. 10 Rollins closed out the 2022 regular season with an impressive 12-2 overall record including 5-2 in Sunshine State Conference action. The two Tars losses came on the road at No. 1 Tampa and at then-No. 12 Florida Southern. The Tars are a perfect 5-0 at home this season including their lone win over a top-20 ranked opponent, a 16-15 victory over then-No. 12 Florida Tech in the regular season finale.
The Tars have been led this season by senior Bailey Pringle who has a team-best 36 goals to go along with 20 assists and 56 points. Senior Finn Jent, freshman Jack Johnstone and sophomore Justin White all have 30-plus goals on the season. Freshman Grant Hansen leads the team in assists with 23 in 2022.
Defensively, senior Justin Isenhour has been causing fits for opposing defenses with a team-best 38 caused turnovers, 17 more than his next highest teammate. The Tars have used four different goalkeepers throughout the season with freshman Bradley Peterson and sophomore Patrick Thomas seeing most of the action. Thomas has started the last five games in goal for the Tars and has a 12.53 goals against average and a 4-1 record. He has made 53 saves and has a .477 saves percentage. Peterson started the majority of the early games in the season and posted a 7-1 record with a 9.65 goals against average with 85 saves and a .515 saves percentage.
At the face, the Tars have used a variety of players with freshman Thomas Garvin and sophomore Mark Ranieri seeing the majority of the action. Garvin has won 104 of his 195 attempts (.533) while Ranieri picked up 70 victories in 152 attempts (.461). Garvin leads the team with 63 ground balls.
The Tars ranked eighth in the NCAA in caused turnovers per game (11.36) while Isenhour leads the NCAA in the same category (3.08). In SSC ranks, the Tars rank third in goals per game (15.43), fourth in points per game (22.86) and fifth in assists per game (7.43). The Tars lead the league in fewest penalty minutes per game.
Head-to-Head
Florida Southern holds the edge in the overall series with Rollins, 9-6, but have lost four of the last five meetings. The Mocs won the first five meetings between the two squads dating between 2009 and 2012. The Tars first victory in the series came March 20, 2013 in Winter Park, a 10-7 win. FSC then won two-straight contests before the Tars went on to win five of the next six contests between 2016 and 2021.
Last Meeting
The lone meeting between the Mocs and Tars this season happened on April 13 in Lakeland as the Mocs defeated the No. 10 Tars 16-11. It marked the first time in program history that the Mocs had defeated two top-10 opponents in the same season. The Mocs jumped out to a 6-1 lead after the opening 15 minutes of action. The Tars got within two goals twice the rest of the way but that was it.
The 16 goals scored by the Mocs in the victory were the most goals the Tars gave up all season in a game. Senior
Jeff Atlas led the way for FSC as he scored four goals and dished out three assists to finish with seven points on the night. Senior
Edward May, senior
Sean Nolan and freshman
Matt Flammenspeck all contributed hat tricks to the cause as the four Mocs accounted for 13 of the 16 goals. Jack Johnstone and Finn Jent led the Rollins effort as they each finished with four goals in the loss.
2022 SSC Tournament
After winning the program's sixth regular-season championship, the University of Tampa claimed the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament. The Spartans hold a 16-0 overall and are ranked No. 1 nationally by multiple outlets. Rollins was awarded the No. 2 seed following tiebreakers with No. 3 Florida Southern and No. 4 Florida Tech. The Tars, Moccasins, and Panthers finished the season knotted at 5-2 in the league standings.
Tampa will host Florida Tech in the semifinal round. The Spartans bested the Panthers, 11-10, in non-conference action on March 12 in Tampa. UT then defeated FT, 11-8, on April 6 in Melbourne. Rollins and Florida Southern will square off on April 28. Florida Southern won the only meeting between the two squads this year, 16-11, in Lakeland on April 13.
Since men's lacrosse became a league sport in 2014, an SSC team has made the NCAA tournament every season. Tampa was the lone representative for the conference from 2014 to 2017, 2019, and 2021, reaching the semifinals three times. In 2018, Saint Leo represented the SSC in the national semifinals.
The Mocs are 1-3 all-time in Sunshine State Conference Tournament action with the lone win coming in the 2014 semfinals which the Mocs hosted at Bryant Stadium in Lakeland versus Saint Leo. The Mocs and Tars have never met in the SSC postseason but the Mocs were 1-0 versus the Tars in the Deep South Conference Tournament with a quarterfinal win which took place in 2010 in Lakeland as well.
