No. 7 UT is Set to Host No. 5 SLU in a Top-10 Matchup

TAMPA, Fla. – The No. 7 University of Tampa men's lacrosse team welcomes the No. 5 Saint Leo University Lions on Wednesday, April 18^th at 8:00 p.m.

The Matchup: No. 7 University of Tampa (12-3, 4-1 SSC) vs. No. 5 Saint Leo University (11-1, 5-0 SSC) 

Date/Time: Wednesday, April 18^th at 8:00 p.m.

Location: Naimoli Family Intramural and Athletic Complex | Tampa, Fla.

Last Time Out: The No. 7 Spartans defeated the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish 27-5. Offensively, junior Andrew Kew led the team with six goals and three assists. Due to his stellar performance against both the Sailfish and the Tars earlier in the week, Kew was awarded SSC Offensive Player of the Week. Following his efforts were Chris Cox and Bryan Wright. Cox logged three goals and one assist in the contest while Wright recorded two goals and two assists. Four other Spartans also had two goals for UT in their impressive performance. On the defensive side of the ball, Jack Tyrrell had one caused turnover and four ground balls, Matt Vetter had one caused turnover and three ground balls, and Luke Posner stated one caused turnover and one ground ball. Noah Menendez led the Spartans in faceoff wins, recording 15-17 in addition to picking up nine ground balls. Following Menendez, was fellow senior Alex Patton who won 8-9 face-offs with seven ground balls. Four different goalies saw the field for the Spartans. However, B.J. Borowski and Bryan Karn led the way with seven and five saves respectively.

About the Spartans: Tampa is currently 12-3 overall, 4-1 in the Sunshine State Conference. Highlights for the Spartans this season include defeating the No. 1 Limestone College Saints 12-10, the No. 7 NYIT Bears 10-9, the No. 10 Belmont Abbey Crusaders 13-12, and the No. 16 Lindenwood Lions 12-6. UT has suffered three losses this season coming from, No. 8 Colorado Mesa, Florida Tech, and No. 3 Lenoir-Rhyne. After losing last season in the NCAA Semifinals, the Spartans are hungry to pick up where they left off and look to finish the season strong, thus punching a ticket to the NCAA tournament once again.

About the Lions: The Lions are currently 11-1 overall, 5-0 in the Sunshine State Conference. Due to the team's stellar performance this season, they have snagged the No. 5 rank according to the USILA weekly coaches poll. The teams only loss this season has come from No. 16 University of Mount Olive by a final score of 9-12. Offensively, the Lions are led by #42 Kyle Pauwels, #52 Charlie Kurtenbach and #31 Jake Gilmour. Pauwels leads Saint Leo with 41 goals and 14 assists this season, while Kurtenbach has 30 goals and 22 assists, and Gilmour has 26 goals and 32 assists. Ethan Ticehurst and Jake Bye head the team on defense with 18 and 12 caused turnovers respectively. Jordan Williams is the team's primary faceoff specialist with a record thus far of 116-238, he also leads the team in groundballs with 45. The Lions use #32 Thomas Tatarian as their primary goalkeeper. Currently, Tatarian has 167 saves and has a goals-against average of 9.11.

Series History (Men's): The Spartans lead the all-time series over the Lions 6-1.

Tickets: Tickets for are $5 for adults, senior citizens and coaches. Children under 12 will be admitted free. UT students, faculty and staff will be admitted free with a valid student ID.