MELBOURNE, Fla. – Sunshine State Conference play opened for the sixth-ranked Saint Leo women's lacrosse team on Saturday. The Lions made the near-three hour trip to Melbourne to kick off conference play at #20 Florida Tech and left with a win thanks to a six goal night by senior Maria Palomba. Jana Nuss tied the program record of 51 assists as she had an assist on the night. The Lions improved to 10-1 on the season and 1-0 in SSC play as the Panthers  fall to 4-2 overall.  

Maria Palomba led the game with six goals on seven shots while causing three turnovers, and picked up a pair of groundballs while winning five draw controls. Sophia Wood had three goals and Natalie Jones, Holly Hill, and Josey Storm all had two goals each. Ava Valenti and Clara Gallapoo also found the back of the net in the victory. In goal for the Lions Jessica Harclerode made nine saves for her tenth win of the season.

#6 SAINT LEO 17, #20 FLORIDA TECH 14
Florida Tech opened the game with two quick goals in the first 90 seconds of the game including scoring just 17 seconds in to the game. Just 62 seconds later the home team made it a 2-0 advantage. Saint Leo tied the game at 2-2. Holly Hill played a role in both goals as she scored the first goal of the game for the Lions and then assisted on Natalie Jones goal. The Panthers scored the next two goals of the game to grow their lead to 4-2. Maria Palomba closed out the opening quarter with her first of six goals on the night cutting into the Panthers lead making it a 4-3 game before the home team scored a late goal in the final minute of the opening quarter.

Goals by Joselyn Storm and Sophia Wood to open the second quarter tied the game at 5-5. After the Panthers took a 6-5 lead the Lions used goals by Natalie Jones and Clara Gallapoo to take their first lead of the game at 7-6. The score stood in favor of the Lions at the halftime break.

Tech used a 4-0 run to open the second half to take a 10-7 lead. That wound up being the final lead of the game as Saint Leo responded with a 6-0 run to take a 13-10 lead. Wood scored back-to-back goals in the quarter just 48 seconds apart, including a women up goal assisted by Marina Dean.

The home team scored the final goal of the third quarter and the first goal of the fourth quarter to cut the Lions lead to one. Over the course of the fourth quarter, the team traded 2-0 runs as Palomba had three of the four goals including a women up goal in the final seconds of the game to make it a 17-14 final.  

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Maria Palomba had five draw controls on Saturday to bring her career total to 456 and continues to lead the team with 64. Which is good for third in the conference, just seven shy of Florida Southern's Maria Reeves with 71.
• Jessica Harclerode made nine saves and leads the SSC with 90 total saves and 8.18 saves per game.
• Jana Nuss tied the program record for assists in a Saint Leo career with one assist on Saturday night as she matched Kaylah Walstad's record of 51 from 2016-19. One more assist and she will own the program record.

UP NEXT
SSC play continues for Saint Leo as the Lions make the trip to south Florida for a 2 p.m. match up at Lynn on Saturday, March 29.