LAKELAND, Fla. – The 16
th-ranked and third-seeded Florida Southern men's lacrosse team will travel to seventh-ranked and second-seeded Tampa Thursday night for the semifinals of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament. The 2023 SSC Tournament appearance is the second-straight for the Moccasins and fifth appearance overall since the SSC began sponsoring men's lacrosse in 2014.
Location: Tampa, Fla.
Stadium: Naimoli Family Athletic And Intramural Complex
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. 16 Florida Southern finished the 2023 regular season with a 12-4 record including 5-2 in Sunshine State Conference play. The 12 overall wins and five conference victories tied school records for most wins in a single season which were both set during the 2022 campaign in which the Moccasins advanced to the SSC Championship game.
The Mocs have won 10 of their last 12 contests with their two losses coming at home versus then-No. 8 Tampa, 17-8, and on the road at then-No. 6 Rollins 14-6. All four of the Mocs losses have come to top-20 ranked programs.
Senior
Sean Nolan leads the Mocs offensive attack as he leads the team in points (68) while ranking second on the squad in goals (44) and third in assists (24). The Cross River, N.Y. native ranks third in the SSC in points per contest while ranking sixth in goals per game and seventh in assists per game. 2022 Sunshine State Conference Freshman of the Year
Matt Flammenspeck leads the Mocs with 49 goals this season. The sophomore needs just one more goal to become the third Moccasin in program history to surpass the 50-goal plateau joining Nolan who achieved 57 goals during the 2022 season and
Dane Sorensen (2012-15) who poured in 63 goals in 2014.
The Florida Southern offensive attack has been one of the best in the country all season. FSC boasts five goal scorers with 20-plus goals and 11 with 10-plus. Overall, the Mocs have scored 20-or-more goals in a program record nine contests this season, the previous record was five set during last season.
On the defensive side of the field, seniors
Nick Shannon and
Zac Fitzgerald patrol opposite sides of the field and have caused a combined 69 turnovers this season including a program record 48 from Shannon and 21 from Fitzgerald. Shannon leads the SSC in caused turnovers per game at 3.00 while ranking second in NCAA DII. Fitzgerald ranks 13
th in the SSC in 70
th nationally in the category. Senior
Griffin Phillips and graduate student
Craig Connor have patrolled the midfield defensively for the Mocs. Phillips, an LSM, ranks third on the team with 20 caused turnovers while Connor, who is a defensive midfielder, sits just behind in fourth with 19 caused turnovers. The quartet along with the rest of their defensive teammates are backed up by junior goalie
Michael Simone who has posted a 10-2 record this season with an impressive 9.21 goals against average, which ranks 10
th in NCAA DII this season. He has faced 366 shots this season and has a .540 saves percentage with 114 total stops. His 10 victories tie him for second overall in the single season FSC record book and one more win would tie him for the program record of 11 wins held by
Matt Lalli (2014-17) which occurred during the 2014 season.
Freshman
Luke Henricksen has moved into the starting role at the face off for the Mocs after an injury to fellow freshman face off specialist
Jacob Czyz. Henricksen has won 81-of-180 (.450) face offs this season while ranking sixth on the team in ground balls with 34. Czyz started the first 13 games at the face off spot but suffered an injury versus Tampa.
As a team, the Mocs lead the SSC in goals per game (18.50), assists per game (10.25), points per game (28.75), shots per game (54.25), shots on goal per game (32.06), man-up goals per game (1.75), man-up scoring percentage (.438), ground balls per game (41.81) and caused turnovers per game (14.50).
Overall in NCAA Division II, the Mocs rank in the top-10 in several categories including leading the country in total assists (164), caused turnovers per game (14.50), total points (460) and scoring offense (18.50). The Mocs also rank in the top-10 in total ground balls (2
nd, 669), points per game (2
nd, 28.75), ground balls per game (3
rd, 41.81), opponent clear percentage (3
rd, 0.726), scoring marging (3
rd, +8.62), assists per game (6
th, 10.25) and clearing percentage (9
th, 0.890).
2nd Seed – The Spartans – Roster | Schedule | Coaches | Statistics
No. 7 Tampa has won nine of its last 10 contests with the lone loss coming on the road at Rollins, 12-6. The Spartans have not dropped a home contest this season and boast an 8-0 record on their home turf. The Spartans won the 2022 Sunshine State Conference Championship as well as the 2022 NCAA National Championship.
Tampa is offensively by a quartet of Spartans who have 49-plus points this season. Graduate student Harry Kilkowski leads the squad with 53 points this season including a team-best 24 assists to go along with 29 goals. Kilkowski ranks third in the SSC in assists per game (1.60) while ranking 10
th in points per game (3.53). Fellow graduate student Daniel Fitzpatrick has 51 points to rank second on the squad while scoring 33 goals and dishing out 18 assists. The leading goal scorer for the Spartans is junior Canyon Birch who has 36 tallies this season while handing out 14 assists to rank third on the team in points with 50. Senior Owen Miller ranks tied for second on the team in goals with 33 while ranking fourth in points with 49 thanks to his 16 assists.
Defensively, graduate student Trejan Cannon leads the team with 25 caused turnovers while senior Matthew Beddow ranks second with 23.
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. Beddow is also the top non-face off specialist in ground balls on the team with 47 while Cannon has scooped up 41. In goal, it has been senior Blake Ulmer leading the charge with an impressive 11-2 record this season. He has an 8.84 goals against average to rank sixth nationally. He has made 194 saves this season with a .614 saves percentage which ranks second nationally.
At the face off, graduate student Hunter Turner and senior Alex Poma have done most of the work. Turner has won 114-of-194 (.588) this season while Poma has gone 93-of-150 (.620). Poma leads the team with 53 ground balls while Turner ranks third with 45.
Head-to-Head
Florida Southern has won just one contest all-time against the Spartans and that came during the 2012 postseason on the road. The Mocs defeated Tampa 11-7 in the Deep South Conference semifinals. Tampa has won 17-straight since that meeting and hold an overall 18-1 mark in the series. The Mocs and Spartans met in the 2022 SSC Championship game with Tampa taking the victory 18-8.
Last Meeting
The lone meeting between the Mocs and Spartans this season happened on April 8 in Lakeland as the Mocs fell to then-No. 8 Spartans 17-8. Sophomore
Matt Flammenspeck led the way for Florida Southern with three goals, one of his 10 hat tricks on the year. Owen Miller led the Spartans with five goals while Daniel Fitzpatrick added four goals and three assists for a seven-point outing.
2023 SSC Tournament
Rollins earned the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament following the program's first SSC regular-season title. The Tars went 7-0 in league play and hold a Top-5 ranking in multiple national polls. Tampa is awarded the No. 2 seed following a 6-1 league mark, while Florida Southern (5-2) repeats as the No. 3 from last season. Saint Leo is awarded the fourth and final seed following a 4-3 record.
Rollins and Saint Leo will square off in the semifinal round. The Tars defeated the Lions, 24-14, on April 15 in Winter Park. The two programs are 1-1 against each other in the SSC tournament. Rollins won the first meeting, 10-9, in the 2016 semifinals, while SLU won, 9-6, in the 2018 semifinals. Tampa will host Florida Southern in the 2023 first round, marking the fifth meeting between the programs in the tournament. The Spartans won the four previous meetings, including last season in the championship final. UT bested the Moccasins, 17-8, in conference action on April 8 in Lakeland.
Since men's lacrosse became a league sport in 2014, an SSC team has made the NCAA tournament every season. Last year, Tampa brought home the league's first NCAA Division II title in men's lacrosse. The Spartans have been the conference's lone representative from 2014 to 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022 reaching the semifinals thrice during that span. In 2018, Saint Leo represented the SSC in the national semifinals.
The Mocs are 2-4 all-time in Sunshine State Conference Tournament action with one win coming in the 2014 semifinals which the Mocs hosted at Bryant Stadium in Lakeland versus Saint Leo and the other coming last season at Rollins in the semifinals.
