WINTER PARK, Fla. (October 15, 2022) - The Rollins Tars found themselves on familiar ground for the first time since September 17, but the Tampa Spartans played the role of spoiler with a 3-1 win over the Tars. With the loss, Rollins falls to 5-5-2 on the year, with a 2-4 record in the SSC. They are currently the #8 seed in the SSC standings with four games to go in the regular season. Only the top six teams in the conference make the playoffs.
The first half of the game was evenly matched for the most part, aside from two costly errors by the Tars' defense. With seventeen minutes to go, the Spartans lined up for a free kick just inside the midfield line. A perfect entry pass found the head of Brooke Steigerwalt to put the Spartans up 1-0. On the ensuing kickoff the Tars had the ball intercepted on the Tampa side of midfield. An absolute bomb off the foot of Ella Armas ended up being a perfect lead pass to the streaking Katherine Hostage who outhustled two Tars defenders and poked the ball past a diving
Michelle Fickett to make it 2-0 just 29 seconds after the previous score.
A halftime adjustment was made by Rollins who placed
Elena Beasley in goal for the second half. It was her first action in almost four weeks following an injury. It took a while for the Rollins offense to get going, but they eventually broke through in the 75th minute when
Anna Todd took a backwards pass from
Kayla Park and delivered a missile into the top right corner of the net to cut the lead in half.
Unfortunately, Tampa responded a minute later off a corner kick set piece. The long ball was delivered to Hannah Kirkpatrick, who found teammate Jackie Morris in the middle of the box. She sent the ball backwards to Lone Cirotzki who lined a 20-footer into the top left corner to make the final score of 3-1.
Tampa outshot Rollins 11-5, though the Tars had the advantage in shots on goal, 4-3.
Things don't get any easier for Rollins in their next match on Wednesday, October 19 when they host the #3 ranked Embry-Riddle Eagles. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
