#6 Mocs Host #9 Flagler in NCAA First Round Thursday

No. 6 Florida Southern College women's lacrosse will go toe-to-toe with No. 9 Flagler Thursday in the First Round of the 2024 NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship for the second consecutive season.
 
The Moccasins (15-4) opened the 2024 season with a 23-16 win over the Saints (17-2) on February 14 in St. Augustine, Fla. The first round matchup will be the third meeting between the two program's with Florida Southern holding a 2-0 record. The Mocs defeated the Saints 19-15 in the first ever meeting on May 12, 2023 in Tampa before the earlier season win.
 
Florida Southern will host the first round as well as the quarterfinal where the Mocs and Saints are joined by No. 3 Tampa (15-3) and No. 13 Lynn (13-5) in the south bracket. May 16 will feature the Mocs and Saints at 11 a.m. before the Spartans and the Fighting Knights at 3 p.m. The winners of each game will face off on May 18 at noon at Berend Field.
 
The Mocs have posted 12 wins this season over ranked opponents, behind a high-power offensive attack in Jackie Stoller, Madison Tare, and Abby McFerren. Florida Southern averages 17.5 goals per game while the trio have combined for 170 of the 332 goals. Stoller, a graduate student from Wayland, Mass., has tallied 114 points so far with 73 goals and 41 assists, sitting ahead of Tare's 80 points. Tare, a graduate student from Etters, Pa., has 80 points through 19 games with 61 goals and 19 assists.
 
McFerren, a senior from York, Pa., is third on the team with 67 points with 36 goals and 31 assists. Senior Hannah Hale joins in the group with over 40 points, sitting with 26 goals and 17 assists in a breakout season.
 
On the circle, the Mocs have four players with over 40 draw controls with Kolby Cohen leading the way with 56. Brayden Cannelli and Audrey Cannelli are in the mix with 49 and 43, respectively, while Maria Reeves is tied for second most carrying 49 into the NCAA tournament.
 
Graduate Caitlin Murphy holds the defensive end with 26 caused turnovers while she also has the second most groundballs with 31. The Cannelli's are second and third on the team in caused turnovers with 22 and 18, respectively for Brayden and Audrey.
 
McKenzie Gaghan stands at 14-4 in goal having played 19 games and 848:19 minutes. She will carry a 11.46 goals against average and a .375 saves percentage into the meeting with Flagler.
 
The Saints are 17-0 against teams not playing in the tournament at Berend Field, having both losses against the top-seeded Mocs and the third-seeded Fighting Knights (15-10). Flagler swept its pair of games in the Gulf South Conference tournament with a 20-10 win over Lee and a 21-8 win over Alabama Huntsville to earn the spot in the Lacrosse Championship.
 
In just three years, the Saints are appearing in the tournament for the second consecutive season and are led by Carley Tepel who has 67 goals in 19 games as the team averages 17.3 goals per game as a unit. Five others join Tepel in scoring over 30 goals this season in Tristan Usher (44), Sydney Onega (39), Lexie Morton (34), Ella Pinder (30), and Carly LaFerriere (30).
 
LaFerriere leads the circle with 91 draw controls ahead of Pinder's 53. Katelyn Trainor has 36 draws on the season and leads the team in caused turnovers alongside Jenn Seebach with 28. Seebach is the team leader in groundballs with 43.
 
Lauren Ribadeneria has played all 19 games in goal and logged 1040:52 minutes with a low 9.22 goals against average and has a .435 saves percentage. The junior from Phoneix, Ariz. is 17-2 in goal and will look to go toe-to-toe against the Moccasins for the second year in a row in the NCAA tournament. She tallied seven saves on 29 shots a year ago in 59:46 minutes of action.

The winner of the 11 a.m. matchup will face the winner of the 3 p.m. First Round game between No. 3 Tampa (15-3) and No. 13 Lynn (13-5) on Saturday, May 18 at noon.