Florida’s lacrosse facility could not accommodate some fans who wanted to watch the team’s inaugural game against the Jacksonville Dolphins.
University officials locked the gates of the Donald R. Dizney Stadium at about 6:20 which prevented some spectators from watching the Gators’ 16-6 win over the Dolphins on Saturday.
Although Dizney Stadium has 1,500 seats, there were about 2,114 people in attendance.
UF treated its spectators, some of whom were new to the sport, to some action early in the game. Freshman Sam Farrell scored the team’s first goal less than two minutes into the match to take a 1-0 lead over the Dolphins. Jacksonville tied the score shortly after, but the Dolphins could not keep up with the Gators.
By halftime, UF led Jacksonville 11-4.
“When you’re playing in front of a crowd like we did tonight, I don’t think that it mattered whether we played well, (or) we didn’t play well,” UF coach Amanda O’Leary said. “All that mattered was the fact that they got behind us.”
Freshman Ashley Bruns, who scored four of UF’s 16 goals, said it was great to have the kind of support the crowd offered, but that on the field, it was about the players finally playing against a legitimate opponent.
“It was amazing,” Bruns said. “We go hard at each other every single day at practice for three hours, and it’s just an amazing feeling to go out and be working together.”
Bruns began the second half for UF scoring 30 seconds into the period. However, the team lost some steam afterward, scoring only four more goals the rest of the match.
“There (were) the first game jitters,” O’Leary said. “Hopefully we’ve got them out of our system now, so we can proceed to game number two.”
