Two weeks after winning their second straight American Lacrosse Conference title, the Florida Gators will look capture their first-ever ALC Tournament title at home in Donald R. Dizney Stadium this weekend.
No. 1 Florida begins its tournament run on Friday at 7 p.m. against the winner of No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Vanderbilt, who play at 7 p.m Thursday.
“We have two great opponents that we may see in Ohio State and Vanderbilt,” coach Amanda O’Leary said. “Both of them are very challenging teams. They provide some problems for us. We’re going to look to get that first game and get that win, and then whatever happens after that, we’ll deal with.”
After falling just short in their ALC Tournament title bid a year ago, the Gators are hoping to ride the momentum from their first-ever win against a No. 1 ranked team two weeks ago to the championship match this Saturday.
No. 3 Florida knocked off No. 1 Northwestern on the road in a thrilling 8-7 upset to close the regular season.
The Gators are quite familiar with the Wildcats, who upended them a year ago in the ALC Tournament final after Florida won the regular-season meeting.
But O’Leary is doing everything she can to make sure Florida isn’t caught looking ahead to a potential matchup with Northwestern in Saturday’s championship game, which will begin at 12:30 p.m.
Instead, she’s got the Gators’ full focus on Friday night’s tournament opener. Having a first-round bye is important, because it’ll allow O’Leary and the Florida players a chance to watch extra film on their potential opponents and see them play live before the Friday night semifinal.
“I think this year, the key to success is going to be getting through the first game,” O’Leary said. “I think we also need to make sure that we’re taking care of Florida lacrosse, and we can’t really get caught up too much in what opposing teams might do.”
For some of the players, though, the goal is crystal clear. There’s no mincing words when it comes to what’s at stake this weekend and what their expectations are.
“Last year we came in first in the regular season, and we’ve done that again this year,” attacker Kitty Cullen said. “But it’s time to actually win the tournament as well.”
Florida has put together a 28-4 all-time home record and has never lost at home to a team ranked lower than No. 9 nationally. With four other Top 20 teams in the tournament this weekend, the Gators will definitely have their hands full, though.
Florida enters the tournament healthy and motivated after getting a little extra rest this week. The Gators expect to get an energy infusion from playing in front of their home fans, too.
“I don’t know if they actually know how big of a momentum boost it is for our team,” O’Leary said. “I would attribute a lot of our home wins to the fact that they’re out here and cheering us on. When we’re sort of in a rut, to hear the cheers still going on and people loudly screaming, I think it does, I think it really helps our team’s momentum and it makes a difference. I’m excited to play in front of our home crowd.”
On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 Northwestern will take on the winner of No. 3 Penn State and No. 6 Johns Hopkins on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Penn State and Johns Hopkins will begin the tournament action with a game slated for a 4:30 p.m. Thursday start.