Tampa, FL - Shaking off the rust from a final four appearance a season ago, the Adelphi University women's lacrosse team suffered a season opening loss to no. 6 Tampa on Tuesday afternoon, by a 14-9 final decision. 

A slow start for Adelphi (0-1), the home team got a quick goal to lead things off and tacked on another as the Panthers only made one attempt toward the cage. Scoring first for the visitors, Kerrin Heuser cut the deficit with her man-up free position attempt and was quickly able to even the score at two-all with 3:47 remaining in the opening frame. 

Tampa managed to sneak two more goals in the closing minutes and continued to stretch their lead well into the second until Alexandra Leggio tallied her first collegiate goal at 9:46. The Spartan's Sarah Hinkle notched her hat trick goal soon after to put the home team up by four with Adelphi struggling to produce anything in their offensive zone. 

At the break, the Brown and Gold still trailed by five as Tampa recorded two more before time expired. 

Alison Turner scored her second of three for the game to open up the third frame to get things going, followed by Izzy Grant who put in back to back goals to bring the visiting team within three. With the clock rapidly winding down, Turner tallied her first career hat trick to keep the contest within three. 

In the final quarter, the Panthers were only 2-for-5 on clear attempts as the Spartans continued to boast a perfect swing from their defensive zone onto offense. Despite an advantage in overall shots, the visitors were outscored 3-1 en route to Tampa securing its fourth consecutive victory as the no. 6 ranked team this week. 

The season-opening defeat marks just the third time that has happened since Head Coach Pat McCabe took over the helm in 2015. 

Adelphi women's lacrosse will remain in Florida for one more game, taking on national rival Florida Southern College on Friday, Feb. 24 before returning north to continue its regular season campaign.