UF Lacrosse Starts 2/10

Yikes!!!

 

The Florida/Maryland match will be at Noon on Thursday, televised on ESPNU!! Winner to the Final 4.

 

Incredible start for the Gators. Maryland has the #2 defense in women's lacrosse, giving up only 8.3 goals per game. Florida leads after the first quarter 9-1. They have been relentless on offense with crisp passing, excellent movemnt and great shot selection. 9 goals on 11 shots.

 

Kind of a disjointed 2nd quarter where it became obvious the TV announcers were pro-Maryland. The Terps did make a defensive adjustment by face guarding Maggie Hall in the 2nd period, which slowed our offense down. But our goalkeeper, Elyse Finnelle, was fantastic with 7 saves. 10-2 at the half and when the 3rd quarter starts the Gators will have the ball with a minute left on a power play.

 

Everybody raves about Florida's offense, which leads D1 in scoring and goals per game. But the Gators are a tremendous defensive team who has been very good at tightening the screws on opponents in the 2nd half and allowing very little scoring. We shall see how this match plays out, but nobody would have thought Florida would be up by 8 goals at the half against the #4 team in the nation!

 

Some careless turnovers the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter opening the door a little for Maryland.

 

Need to crank the offense back up. Once we got that huge lead, Gators have been content to kind of run clock and sit on the lead. But Maryland is now pressing their defense and we're not handling the ball very well. Ramp up the pressure, ladies!

 

13-6 going to the 4th quarter with the Gator having a 2 minute power play to start. One of Florida's strengths is Draw Control and Maryland is winning that stat 11-9. They, also, have 31 shots to our 19. But 17 of our shots have been on goal; they only have 15. I like our position, just can't let up the high level play.