Early on Friday, the Florida lacrosse team came out swinging in the first quarter of its NCAA Tournament semifinal matchup against its undefeated foe, North Carolina.
Grabbing an early 4-2 lead, the Gators positioned themselves to potentially give the Tar Heels their first loss of the season.
However, Florida’s momentum suddenly flipped.
From the second quarter on, North Carolina (21-0) was flawless, scoring 18 unanswered goals to defeat Florida (20-3) 20-4 Friday afternoon at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The loss marks UF’s second loss to UNC this season, as the Gators fell to the Tar Heels 14-9 Feb. 17 in Gainesville.
Florida played an aggressive first quarter, both offensively and defensively. UF forced five turnovers in the first quarter, while redshirt junior goalkeeper Elyse Finnelle made 5 saves in the first half. Gators redshirt freshman attacker Frannie Hahn opened up the scoring early, assisted by junior attacker Gianna Monaco.
Florida then allowed two UNC goals before scoring three times. Junior midfielder Kaitlyn Davies, freshman attacker Clark Hamilton and graduate student attacker Jordan Basso each scored to give the Gators a two-goal lead after the first 15 minutes. Monaco logged two assists in the first quarter.
As the second quarter began, Florida quickly lost control of the game. The Tar Heels, led by redshirt freshman attacker and Tewaaraton Award finalist Chloe Humphrey, shut out Florida for the remaining three quarters. Humphrey logged a hat trick in three minutes and broke the UNC record for most goals scored in a season with 86 goals. She scored seven times throughout the matchup.
Freshman midfielder Eliza Osburn, freshman attacker Addison Pattillo, junior attacker Carolina Godine and redshirt sophomore Marissa White all added goals to bring the score to 12-4 at the end of the second quarter. From there, Florida graduate student goalkeeper Georgia Hoey was brought on as relief for Finnelle.
UF failed to score in the second half of the game while struggling to maintain possession. The defenders also could not contain Humphrey and the Tar Heels’ offense.
The Tar Heels won by a 16-goal margin and refused to let up defensively the second half. With the win, North Carolina advances to the title game, making its sixth appearance in program history. Friday’s game was Florida’s third semi-final, but the Gators have yet to reach a title game.
Post-game, UNC head coach Jenny Levy credited Florida with a great season and applauded UF head coach Amanda O’Leary for the great job she has done this year.
The Gators went 20-3 this season and were the No. 4 seed going into the NCAA tournament. The team won the Big 12 conference in its first year while reaching its second consecutive Final Four.
Contact Nicole Lopez at nlopez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @lopeznicole715.
