Defense has led the Gators (6-3, 0-1 American Lacrosse Conference) to wins in their last three games, but they will have a tall order to fill when they visit Ohio State (5-3) on Saturday in their second conference game.
UF has not had success on the road, especially against top-ranked opponents — they fell 18-5 to No. 4 North Carolina and 16-8 to ALC leader Johns Hopkins earlier in the season.
The matchup in Columbus, Ohio, will be a similar challenge for the Gators because the Buckeyes’ three losses were close and came against ranked opponents — No. 20 William and Mary, No. 15 Stanford, and five-time defending champions No. 1 Northwestern.
UF coach Amanda O’Leary is looking forward to the chance for her first-year program to prove it belongs in the ALC.
“I think Ohio State has something coming to them,” O’Leary said. “We’re really excited.”
O’Leary said shutting down OSU’s attackers will be the key to the match, a challenge goalkeeper Cara Canington is ready for.
“This energy that we’ve had for the past three games, we just want to keep it up going into the conference and just get a win at Ohio State,” she said. “The most important thing is just competing.”
Statistics from the last three games show that when Florida’s defense is on point, the offense plays better too.
UF gave up just 11 goals in those games, and the offense scored 47. In the previous two games, both losses, the Gators were outscored 29-19.
Midfielder Kitty Cullen said the last three games, albeit against unranked teams, were a good confidence booster for UF heading into Ohio State.
“We’re feeling pretty strong,” Cullen said. “We know that we’ve been playing well together, (and) if we keep playing the same way, we can hopefully win on Saturday.”
Cullen said having already lost a conference match, her team knows what to do to avoid falling to 0-2.
“Now we know what we are up against, and we know that this is a must win game, so we have to go out there and give it our all,” she said.
