By the fourth rain delay of the Gators’ first ever NCAA Tournament game, both Florida and Stanford had been sitting in the hallways of UF’s lacrosse facility for five hours.
Teammates from both sides mingled and talked, drifting in and out of their locker rooms. Others passed the time with a couple rounds of Travel Scrabble.
As UF coach Amanda O’Leary said, it was not the ideal start to No. 4-seed Florida’s 13-11 win over 13th-seeded Stanford (16-3, 6-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation).
“I’m thinking, ‘Oh, boy’ this is our first one, these girls have never played in an NCAA Tournament game before,” O’Leary said. “So I was a little concerned with how they would handle sitting in the locker room for four to five hours, but obviously, they came out ready to go and ready to play.”
From the opening draw, it was apparent which team had the fresher legs and the better conditioning leading up to the game.
The Gators (16-3, 5-0 American Lacrosse Conference) owned the first three possessions in the half and sprinted out to a 4-0 lead on a five-minute hat trick from sophomore Kitty Cullen.
Each goal came as a result from a quick strike in transition, where Florida exploited Stanford’s inability to get back on defense.
“I thought the speed was a factor, but once our team got it settled, I thought our defense did a relatively good job,” Cardinal coach Amy Bokker said.
Stanford clawed its way back into the game and only trailed 5-4 at halftime, but Florida again punished the visitors from the opening draw to start the second.
Midfielder Janine Hillier, who tied a career-high with four goals, blasted a shot past Cardinal goalie Annie Read just 20 seconds into the period, while sophomore Brittany Dashiell (three goals, two assists) scooped up the resulting draw and fired another goal just 22 ticks later.
“We still pulled through with our speed throughout the whole game,” Dashiell said. “I think that showed because we scored a lot of goals through transition, and we really exploited their weaknesses and played them to our strengths.”
After Cullen’s fourth goal brought the game to its final 13-11 margin, the Gators simply played keep-away from Stanford’s defenders over the last 4:30, weaving through traffic and double teams.
“Our young women are just so well conditioned,” O’Leary said. “[UF Strength and Conditioning coach] Karen Werth does a fantastic job with them, so I knew that any one of them could run the ball around for any amount of time — and they have the heart to do it.”
With the win, Florida advances to play No. 5-seed Duke (14-4, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) next Saturday at 3 p.m. in Gainesville with an NCAA semifinal berth on the line.
