Expecting to cruise past Jacksonville and extend their eight-game win streak Wednesday evening, the Gators ran into more trouble than they thought against the Dolphins.
Gator freshman Caroline Hoskins scored the first goal of the day six minutes into the competition, but Jacksonville scored four unanswered goals in the following nine minutes.
Trailing by three goals halfway into the first quarter, Florida’s offense wasn’t clicking, and its defence was struggling to hold on.
With under three minutes left in the first frame, Amanda O’Leary called a timeout. And the break did wonders. Florida was able to cut its deficit to two in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter with a goal by senior Kaitlyn Davies.
That goal rippled through the Florida team, and it became a storm that could not be stopped, entering the second quarter.
The No. 5 Gators (11-2, 3-0 Big 12) pushed past the Dolphins (9-4, 4-1 Atlantic Sun Conference) 12-11 at Donald R. Dizney Stadium in their final non-conference game of the season to extend their winning streak to nine games.
Freshman attacker Autumn Blair opened the second frame with a free-position goal, caused by a foul on Jacksonville’s leading defender Courtney Quirk. All it took from there was for redshirt sophomore attacker Frannie Hahn to shake her defender as she drove behind the cage to sneak up on the Dolphins' goalie and shoot a low corner bullet to tie the game.
With that, Florida pulled a four-goal lead over Jacksonville at halftime when they went on a 7-0 run for 14 minutes.
“When we had great ball movement, we saw so much success, and when the ball died in our sticks or we were making really bad decisions, it just came back off on us,” O’Leary said.
Despite the run, this Florida’s tightest final match score since its 14-13 victory against Clemson Feb. 21.
In the third quarter, things slowed back down. The Gators went on a 3-0 run in the initial seven minutes of the frame, but JU retaliated with another 3-0 run in the final eight, leaving UF clinging to its initial four-point advantage.
Entering the fourth, the momentum continued for the Dolphins. They extended their three unanswered goals to six, and before Florida knew it, Jacksonville was down by one with 37 seconds left on the clock. But freshman goalie Maya Soskin made a huge save on a shot by JU’s leading goals scorer Maeve Brennan with nine seconds left in the match, and the Gators were able to hold on, despite being shutout the entire final frame.
Jacksonville claimed the advantage in draw controls. It is ranked No.7 in the nation in draw control percentage with 62.5 % draw control wins, while Florida is No. 42 with 54.1%. And it showed. The Dolphins dominated the Gators in draw controls, 17-8.
“Today was not our draw team’s day by any stretch of the imagination,” O’Leary said. “I think we just mentally had some lapses.”
Leading JU in draw controls with seven was senior midfielder Abby Moran. For the Gators, junior midfielder Gabbi Koury led with four.
Leading scorers for the evening for Florida were Blair and sophomore attacker Clark Hamilton with a hat trick each. It marked Blair’s first-career hat trick. Hahn led the Gators with four assists. For Jacksonville, Brannan led them with three goals.
Florida will look to continue to work on their ball movement and draw controls as it travels to Cincinnati, Ohio, to compete against Cincinnati (8-7, 0-3 Big 12) on Saturday at noon.
Contact Coral Uzgiden at cuzgiden@alligator.org. Follow her on X @coraluzgiden.
Coral is a sophomore Sports Journalism student in her first semester with the Alligator covering Lacrosse. She also has experience writing for WRUF and covering beats such as high school football and Gators swim and dive. She is an intern for the Women of the Lowcountry and in her free time enjoys playing waterpolo, going to the gym and being outside.
