Dunleavy Leads Florida Tech to First NCAA Tournament Win


Caroline Dunleavy - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography
The Florida Tech Panthers women’s lacrosse team jumped on the 11th ranked East Stroudsburg Warriors early Friday and weathered a late charge, to win their first ever NCAA tournament game, 17-10. The win sets up a third meeting with #1 ranked Florida Southern on Saturday.


The sixth-ranked Panthers, who came in with a record of 13-3, were led by Caroline Dunleavy, who scored seven goals and added four assists. Sam Schiano and Allie Modica each had a hat trick for the Panthers.

The game started pretty even, with the teams trading the first four goals. Allie Modica and Caroline Dunleavy scored for Florida Tech, while Alicia Stratten scored both goals for the Warriors. She would go on to score all four first half goals for East Stroudsburg, but the Panthers poured it on offensively, in between her tallies.

With the game tied at two, the Panthers got goals from Sam Schiano, Dunleavy Modica and Schiano again, before Stratten’s third goal made it 6-3. Sara Grenier scored her 55th goal of the season with 15:49 to go in the half and Stratten answered, to make it 7-4.

That was as close as the Warriors would get, as FIT scored five straight goals to end the half, against freshman netminder Tatyana Petteway, grabbing a 12-4 lead at the break.
Florida Tech goalie Stephanie Stuart was up to the task in the first half, making six saves. She also got some help by the iron a couple times as well.

Dunleavy finished the first half with four goals, Schiano and Modica had three and Grenier had two, she led in assists as well, with three, giving her seven first half points.

East Stroudsburg (17-3) outscored the Panthers 6-5 in the second half, but Stratten, who had the four-goal first half, was silent in the second, as Stuart made a couple saves on her, including one with 18:05 left in the game, from point blank range. She finished with 11 saves in the contest.

Stephanie Stuart - Photo credit: James Ragan
  
Dunleavy had three goals in the second half, while Mary Gormley had two of her own. Chessie Rahmer and Cassidy McKenna had two goals each for the Warriors in that second half, but they couldn’t get their team close enough to make a game of it in the end.

For more info: Florida Tech @ East Stroudsburg Box Score (Lakeland FL)

The Panthers will now move on to play South Region top seed Florida Southern. The Panthers lost to the Moccasins twice already this season, 12-11 in overtime on April 1 and in the Sunshine State Conference championship game on April 30, 20-12.

The old sports clichĂ© is that the hardest thing to do is beat a team three times in the same season. Florida Tech must hope that holds true and their offensive outburst in this game, carries over to Saturday’s game. First draw is set for 3:00 p.m.




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