No. 5 Spartans Set To Square-Off With Mocs In SSC Tournament

TAMPA, Fla. - The No. 5 University of Tampa men's lacrosse team will be the host and favorite to win the 2016 Sunshine State Conference Tournament, as the No. 1 seed for the third consecutive year.

The Spartans enter the tournament with a 12-2 record and were in undefeated in conference play during the regular season. Tampa is coming off an 11-9 victory over the Rollins College Tars that clinched the No. 1 seed and third straight conference regular season championship for Head Coach Rory Whipple's squad. They will face off against the No. 4 seeded Mocs of Florida Southern College in the second fixture of the semifinal round. 

The UT attack comes into the game averaging 13.43 goals and 6.5 assists per game, with a shots on goal percentage of 64.6. Setting the pace for the offense is Andrew Kew, who has tallied 47 goals on the season and dished out five assists. Igniting the offense is junior Conor Whipple, who leads the team in points (82) and assists (40) finding the back of the net 42 times which ranks second on the team. Rounding out the offense is a trio of scorers in Jake Schmidt, Mike Morris, and Matt Bilak, who have tallied 25, 24, and 15 goals apiece. 

Defensively the Spartans have scooped up 436 groundballs and forced 102 caused turnovers as a team. A.J. Ferraro leads the team in groundballs with 44 and has nine caused turnovers. Charlie Cummins leads the defensive unit with 19 caused turnovers and 25 ground balls. Also, providing some muscle on the defensive end is Luke Posner with 32 groundballs and 13 caused turnovers. 
In net, A.J. Arnold will get the start for Tampa with a record of 8-1 and save percentage of  57.9  which is second best in the conference and a goals against average of 8.25 which ranks first in the SSC.

At the faceoff X, Sophomores Alex Patton and Noah Menendez will split the duties with Patton taking a majority of the work load The West Hampstead, N.Y. native has put up a faceoff winning percentage of 62.9 which ranks third in the conference. Menendez is nothing to scoff at either with a faceoff winning percentage of 58.2 which is sixth best in the SSC.

FSC enters the matchup with a 9-8 overall record and 2-3 in SSC play. Last time out the Mocs dropped a heartbreaking contest to the Saint Leo Lions losing 9-8 in double overtime.

Florida Southern's offense, who is averaging 10.71 goals per game is paced by the dynamic duo of Lucas Claude and Tyler Kopen, who have both tallied 73 goals apiece on the season, and rank first and second on the team in points with 64 and 46 points each respectively.  Also providing heavy firepower for the Mocs offense is Cody Dyer and Cody Gray, who've notched 30 and 26 goals each this season as well as dishing out double-digit assists with Dyer recording 20 and Gray registering 26 assists on the campaign.

Defensively, Austen Lison and Tyler Novak lead the way for Florida Southern as the pair have combined for 122 groundballs and gone on to force 43 caused turnovers on the year.

At the Faceoff X be sure to watch out for the battle between Tampa's Patton and Southern's Joseph Biondi Jr. Biondi has put up a faceoff winning percentage of 53.4 and amassed 64 groundballs on the year.

UT leads the series all-time with a record of 6-1 against FSC, with the latest victory coming earlier in the 2016 season, where the Spartans picked up the win in dominating fashion winning 22-7.

Game time is set for 8 PM, Live stats, as well as a web broadcast will be available for fans to follow the action via TampaSpartans.com.

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