Florida’s first-year women’s lacrosse program had a banner moment Saturday. The Gators knocked off No. 14 Penn State, 13-11, at the Donald R. Dizney Stadium and in doing so won their first game in the American Lacrosse Conference.
Ashley Bruns scored four goals and had two as the Gators used a 5-1 scoring run in the middle of the second half to open up a five-goal lead before holding on in the closing minutes for the victory.
Defense was the story for Florida (8-4, 1-2 ALC) again as the Gators held Penn State (6-4, 0-2 ALC) without a shot for nearly 14 minutes to open the game. After going into the locker room tied at 6, Florida held the Nittany Lions to just two goals in the first 28 minutes of the second half. PSU scored three goals in the final two minutes to make the crowd of 1,016 nervous. However, goalie Cara Canington made a huge save on a free position shot with 18 seconds remaining and the Gators were able to run out the clock.
“The defense throughout the game did a really great job,” Florida head coach Amanda O’Leary said. “We had some letdowns there at the very end … but I thought overall the team played a phenomenal game defensively.”
Bruns scored two early goals and had an assist to Janine Hillier as the Gators jumped out to a 4-0 lead before PSU had even attempted a shot. The Nittany Lions, however, outscored the Gators 4-1 over the final 9 minutes of the first half to send the game into the locker room tied at 6-6.
“In the locker room we decided what we needed to fix,” Canington said. “They had two lefties that were killing us in the first half. We really stepped up and stopped them in the second half and made the adjustments.”
Midfielder Brittany Dashiell scored less than three minutes into the second half to give UF a lead it would never surrender. Bruns scored again and goals from Caroline Cochran and Caroline Chesterman gave the Gators a 10-7 lead. Mary Dean scored her second goal of the game for Penn State at the 9:15 mark to pull her team back within two, but Colby Rhea answered less than a minute later for Florida and Bruns and Kitty Cullen pushed the lead to five goals with just under five minutes left.
Molly Fernandez entered the game for Penn State with a team-leading 24 points, but freshman defender Haydon Judge held Fernandez without a shot the entire game.
“Haydon is a tenacious defender,” said O’Leary. “She’s got quick feet, the same as Molly does, so she matches up really well with her speed and quickness. Haydon did a really good job on her. She took Molly out of her game a little bit, but it wasn’t without the help of her other teammates. It was a total team effort out there.”
Florida outshot Penn State 32-22 in the game and recorded nine ground balls to the Nittany Lions’ five. The Gators committed a season-low five turnovers and Canington made eight saves in the net. Bruns led the team with six points on four goals and two assists. Chesterman, Dashiell and Hillier each had two goals for Florida.
Florida has a two-game road trip next weekend to upstate New York, playing Le Moyne on Friday at 4 p.m. and Colgate Sunday at noon.