Last year, Stanford was defeated by Florida in the NCAA championship match. This year, it hoped to get its revenge.
Florida hadn’t won a meet in which it dropped the doubles point all season. Against Saint Mary’s (4-5), the pairing of senior Josie Kuhlman and freshman McCartney Kessler lost the deciding set in the doubles point, setting up the expectation of UF’s demise.
Center fielder Nick Horvath coiled his arms into his sides, arched his back and glared at Miami starting pitcher Jeb Bargfeldt. With a runner on first base in the third inning, the Gators were in unfamiliar territory: losing in a baseball game against the Hurricanes.
The air in the O’Connell Center was stale with the shock of a crowd of 8,321. No one spoke as all eyes in the arena focused on senior Kennedy Baker, who sat clutching her foot following a fall during her floor routine.
The crowd at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium fell silent in the top of the fourth inning. Then, it erupted in cheers as UF softball players funneled out of their dugout.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are competing in their home pool this weekend for the first time in over a month.
When the Gators entered the 2018 spring season just eight months removed from winning a national championship, they were the third-ranked team in the nation.
What is the Gators’ secret to staying fresh between games?
At James G. Pressly Stadium on Tuesday, you could hear the deafening blast of a starter pistol going off every few minutes, followed by the sight of a small puff of smoke whirling up into the air.
Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium fell silent Wednesday night with nothing but the wind blowing through the once echoing bleachers full of rowdy Gators fans.
It doesn’t get any easier for Mike White and the Gators.
The Florida gymnastics team is finding its groove, having won its previous five meets by an average of 0.480 points.
The 16th and final NCAA baseball regional announced in 2017 was Gainesville. The Gators obviously knew they were in, but in Coral Gables, crowded around a television in the bowels of Mark Light Field, the Hurricanes huddled together and lunged toward the screen in anticipation.
The number two appeared in the box score numerous times after Thursday night’s Florida women’s basketball game.
The Gators have finally broken through in a big way.
Chris Chiozza received an inbound pass and drove toward the basket. Down by five with 25 seconds remaining in the contest, the senior guard sprinted by two defenders as he made a beeline for the hoop.
When seniors Haley Lorenzen and Paulina Hersler hear the buzzer sound for the final time as members of Florida’s women’s basketball team, they will leave a gaping hole in UF’s starting frontcourt.
Florida guard Deaundre Ballard held his hands high above his head, less like a defender and more like a helpless victim signaling his surrender. Tennessee forward Grant Williams pushed him back and back until Ballard looked straight up from under the rim — arms still locked — and watched the ball fall gently through the net.
Sport has always been political.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Gators fans started to get restless with Bethune-Cookman pitcher Branden Frank.
Solutions by The State News
