Spartans Set to Meet Lake Erie in NCAA Quarterfinals
The Sunshine State Conference championships are over. Automatic qualifiers have been set. And Sunday's Selection show filled in the rest as the NCAA announced who plays who in the 2015 lacrosse tournament.
For the second straight time, the University of Tampa was one of eight teams selected to compete for the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Division II title landing a No. 3 seed in the South Region.
"Our staff and our players have all worked extremely hard to be in a position to be selected for the NCAA tournament. Our schedule is based upon selection criteria and we knew that our RPI and win percentage, two major criteria, were in our favor. Coach (Rory) Whipple does a fantastic job of putting his teams in a position to succeed," assistant coach Chris Burdick said.
Tampa (15-3) will travel to Lake Erie College (14-2) Saturday for a quarterfinal showdown at Jack Britt Memorial Stadium in Painesville, Ohio, a place that is all too familiar for the Spartans.
This will be UT's second time this season playing the Storm, who are only one of three teams to hand the Spartans a loss this season. The Storm capitalized on UT's road game matchup, taking an early lead and never looked back, defeating Tampa 13-7.
As for the second time around, sophomore Attacker Conor Whipple is more than ready to get the faceoff underway. "With already playing them once, we have a good idea what to expect from Lake Erie. They are a fast, tough, and physical team. If we can match their intensity, anything could happen."
UT is coming off a 14-6 defeat by Colorado Mesa last Friday night. The Maverick's defense was enough to shut out Tampa in the first quarter and limiting them to just one goal in the fourth. Though a loss is never a good thing, UT looks to make the best out of the situation going into the tournament.
"It was unfortunate that the Colorado Mesa game didn't go in our favor. Although with the loss it gave our team a better understanding of what level we have to play at to avoid losing again. We have to pick up our tenacity if we want to advance," Whipple said.
The winner of Saturday night's game will advance to the national semifinals and face the winner of No. 1 Limestone and No. 4 Lindenwood. In 2014, UT advanced to the semifinals, and was defeated by Limestone en route to the national title.
When asked what it will take to come out with the victory Burdick said, "We firmly believe that our team has not put together its best 60 minutes of lacrosse yet this year. So that's our goal Saturday, to play our best 60 minutes and see if it can get us where we want to go."
Written by Candace Martino