TAMPA, Fla. – Two high power offenses clashed Sunday afternoon with a trip to the NCAA National Semifinals on the line, which saw No. 6 Florida Southern women's lacrosse defeat No. 2 Tampa 15-9 at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex.
Florida Southern (18-3) saw
Lizzy Lynch put together another strong performance in the NCAA tournament where she matched her First Round two goal-five assists performance with five goals and one assist against the Spartans. With her six points, the graduate student from Boca Raton, Fla. went over the 200-career points mark, sitting at 205.
Giana Murphy was second on the team with four goals ahead of
Abby McFerren and
Hailey Daleo, at two each, and
Jackie Stoller and
Sammy Gorrasi, at one apiece. Stoller added two assists while McFerren added one for three game points.
Daleo who tallied two points too joined Lynch in going over 200 career points where she stands at 201 career points with 200 at Florida Southern, and her one point coming her freshman season.
Lynch and Daleo become the sixth and seventh players in program history to tally 200 career points in the Red and White.
Gina Verrone, who was well rested coming into the second-round game, played the full 60 minutes and made two huge key caused turnovers to stop the Spartans where she scooped up four groundballs in the game.
Florida Southern won 13 draw controls to Tampa's 15, where McFerren paced the Mocs with six ahead of
Madison Tare and
Maria Reeves' two each while Verrone, Murphy, and Stoller each won one draw.
Sydney O'Neill earned her seventh win of the season playing the full 60 minutes in goal while making 10 saves.
In the two programs third meeting of the season, and all on the line, Florida Southern came away victorious against Tampa (18-3) after stringing together 11 goals in the middle two periods. A slow start to the game saw the Moccasins score the lone goal of the first period at the 9:37 mark on a
Jackie Stoller -
Giana Murphy connection.
Murphy caught the pass and finished in the back of the net to give the Mocs a 1-0 lead, well into the first period. Both teams traded chances to score in the opening frame, but it was just the lone goal that set the tone.
Florida Southern got fired up and ripped off six goals, the seventh unanswered, to take a 7-0 lead.
Abby McFerren and Murphy would each score two in the run while
Hailey Daleo and Stoller each netted one.
The Spartans would get a goal in transition at the 1:57 mark as the teams headed into the halftime break with a 7-1 game.
Tampa started the third off with back-to-back goals before Murphy silenced the run with an unassisted goal for an 8-3 FSC lead.
The Spartans quickly answered yet again to make it 8-4, but Daleo and
Lizzy Lynch would find the back of the net to push it to 10-4.
After a Tampa goal with three minutes to play, Lynch would end the third with a pair of goals as Florida Southern killed the clock.
Tampa outscored Florida Southern 4-3 in the final period, but the lead by the Mocs was too great. Five minutes ran off the clock in the fourth before Tampa scored but shortly thereafter, Lynch scored her fourth of the day followed by
Sammy Gorrasi, 14-6.
With the clock winding down, Tampa scored two goals in succession to cut it to 14-8, but Lynch once again found the back of the net to keep the Mocs ahead by seven. The Spartans would score the last goal of the game with 2:54 remaining as Florida Southern started the celebration, 15-9 FSC.
Florida Southern moved to 10-5 all-time in the NCAA Division II National Tournament and will await its opponent for Friday's (May 19) National Semifinal matchup at the University of Indianapolis.
