#14 Mocs Fall in SSC Championship

TAMPA, Fla. – The No. 14 Florida Southern men's lacrosse team was seeking its first Sunshine State Conference Tournament Championship Sunday afternoon against No. 1 Tampa but the Spartans used a strong offensive effort to claim their seventh tournament title, 18-8. The Championship game appearance was the second in program history for the Mocs who will await next weekend's announcement of the NCAA Championship field which will be announced Sunday, May 8.
 
The loss drops Florida Southern's record to 12-6 overall with all six losses coming against teams ranked among the top-20. The Spartans continued their perfect season, improving to 18-0.
 
Seniors Sean Nolan, Edward May, Maxwell Freestone and Kevin Horwitz were all named to the SSC All-Tournament Team for their performances against Rollins and Tampa. Nolan and junior Jay Minor led the effort Sunday with three points each. Nolan scored a goal and handed out a pair of assists while Minor picked up his fifth hat trick of the season.
 
Senior Jeff Atlas and freshman Matt Flammenspeck finished with two points each in the loss. Atlas handed out two assists to added to his single season and career records in the category while Flammenspeck scored a pair of goals. May and senior Andrew Medeiros each scored one goal while Horwitz and sophomore Clayton Moench each chipped in one assist.
 
Freestone had a busy day in the cage making the second most saves in a game this season with 17 in the loss. His record fell to 10-5 in 2022. Horwitz just edged the Tampa faceoff specialist winning 16 of the 30 meetings while picking up a team-high seven ground balls.
 
The Spartans jumped out to an early lead in the championship contest as they scored five of the opening six goals and led 8-3 after the opening 15 minutes of action. The Mocs were able to slow the Spartans down in the second quarter but the offense continued to struggle against a tough Tampa backline. Both teams tallied two goals in a tight second quarter as the Spartans took a 10-5 lead into the break.
 
The third quarter was much like the second with both teams playing tough defense and few goals finding the back of the net. The Mocs scored the opening two goals of the period to cut the deficit to just three but three-straight goals to end the stanza put the Spartans back into firm control, leading 13-7 with just 15 minutes left in the game.
 
The fourth quarter saw the Spartans score four goals in less than two minutes to seal the victory. The Mocs added one more score with just over five minutes to play but it would not be enough as the Spartans claimed their seventh-straight tournament title, 18-8.
 
The Mocs, who sat just outside the top-eight in the most recent regional rankings, earned a win over Rollins who was ranked seventh in the most recent region rankings and took a loss from the top-ranked team in the country. The committee will decide whether those two contests along with the rest of the body of work is strong enough to jump into the top-six and earn a berth into the 2022 NCAA Championship. The sixth-ranked team, Wingate, fell in the SAC Tournament Championship 17-13 to the fifth-ranked team in the region, Lenoir-Rhyne. The seventh ranked team, Rollins, fell to Florida Southern while the eighth ranked team, Florida Tech, fell in the SSC semifinals to No. 1 Tampa.
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