Florida will have to address consistency and communication problems before its inaugural season opener Feb. 20.
UF lost 8-17 to the U.S. National Developmental team in an exhibition match Saturday in Orlando.
Coach Amanda O’Leary attributed the defeat to poor second-half play and the lack of communication on both ends of the field.
“The first half we played really well; both offensively and defensively and through the midfield,” she said. “In the second half, we faltered. We got away from our game plan, and we had some troubles.”
After trailing 0-1 early in the first half, UF rallied and scored two goals to take the lead. The U.S. team then pulled away, and UF trailed 4-7 at the half.
Things continued to go downhill for UF as the U.S. team scored five unanswered goals to begin the second half, en route to the 17-8 win.
O’Leary said the team needs to address its fundamental and on-field communication problems.
“In the second half, we started dropping a lot of passes, and they weren’t even pressured passes,” she said. “We need to do a little bit better job of communicating; it just hasn’t quite clicked yet.”
The match was called using international rules — playing with one less player for two minutes if a yellow card is given and 5 minutes for a red card.
Conversely, college lacrosse rules would allow another player to be substituted for the carded athlete.
UF played “man down” for almost 20 minutes throughout the match, O’Leary said, and the quality of UF’s opponent made it more difficult.
“We can’t play man down against a team like the U.S. National team,” O’Leary said. “They’re just way too talented and they’re just too good, so when we started to get into foul trouble, it really took its toll on us.”
O’Leary said the match was a great learning experience for her young team and will provide film material for improvements.
