Despite three goals from freshman attacker Ashley Bruns, Florida suffered a 12-7 college lacrosse setback to No. 8 Vanderbilt Sunday at Donald R. Dizney Stadium. The game was the final home contest for the Gators in their inaugural varsity season.
Florida (9-6, 1-3 ALC) led 6-5 with 10:19 to play in regulation but Vanderbilt (11-3, 4-0 ALC) used a 7-1 scoring run to end the game.
“The draw controls were the turning point of the game,” Florida coach Amanda O’Leary said. “We won draw controls as a total, but it was that run that we lost four in a row that was costly.”
The opening half was back-and-forth throughout. Carter Foote got the visiting team on the board first nearly three minutes into the game, but Caroline Chesterman and Caroline Cochran scored to give Florida a 2-1 lead.
Vanderbilt’s Ally Carey tied the game at 2-2 and then put the Commodores ahead 3-2 with 4:50 remaining in the first half. Less than a minute later, Florida’s Brittany Dashiell scored her 25th goal of the season to even the score at 3-3.
But Vanderbilt’s Katherine Decker fired a shot into the net with just over a minute on the clock to give her team a 4-3 lead at the intermission.
Foote opened the second half with a goal to push the lead to 5-3, but Florida responded with three straight goals to take its final lead of the game. First Colby Rhea scored to pull the Gators within one and then Bruns scored twice to put Florida into the lead at 6-5 with just over 10 minutes left in the second half.
The Commodores answered quickly, scoring 30 seconds following Bruns’ second goal and then started to take control of the game with back-to-back goals by Foote and Denkler. Bruns scored to bring Florida within one, 8-7, but Vanderbilt put the game on ice with four straight goals.
“We had a poor shooting day,” O’Leary continued. “You have to put the ball in the back of the net. We had multiple opportunities; we had 25 shots, 15 in the first half. You have to score more than seven goals when you have those numbers of shots.”
The Gators totaled 25 shots and 17 shots on goal, but Vanderbilt goalie Natalie Wills was solid between the pipes with 10 saves. Florida recorded more ground balls (16 to 12) and draw controls (12 to 9) for the game and only allowed one free-position goal in five attempts by the Commodores. Dashiell had a season-high six ground balls and controlled five draws.
Foote and Carey each finished with four goals for Vanderbilt, while Denkle had two goals and three assists.
The three goals by Bruns brought her total to a team-leading 44 (she also has 30 assists for 74 total points). Florida ended its first home season at Dizney with a 7-2 record, losing to then No. 5 Georgetown 13-11 on March 9 as well as Sunday.
Florida will take two weeks off before traveling to Evanston, Ill., to face defending national champion Northwestern (12-1, 2-0 ALC) in the regular-season finale on Sunday, May 2 at 1 p.m. The top-ranked Wildcats suffered their first loss of the season Sunday when No. 2 North Carolina earned an 18-16 victory.
AMERICAN LACROSSE CONFERENCE
Conference Overall
(Rank) School W-L Pct. W-L Pct.
(9) Vanderbilt 4-0 1.000 11-3 .786
(1) Northwestern 3-0 1.000 12-1 .923
Johns Hopkins 1-2 .333 8-6 .571
Florida 1-3 .250 9-6 .600
(19) Ohio State 1-3 .250 8-5 .615
(18) Penn State 1-3 .250 8-5 .615
(rank) Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association ranking
RESULTS
SUNDAY / April 18
Vanderbilt 12, Florida 7
North Carolina 18, Northwestern 16
Penn State 18, Ohio State 12
SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY / April 22
Notre Dame at Ohio State, 5 p.m.
SATURDAY / April 24
Johns Hopkins at Penn State, 1 p.m.
Vanderbilt at Northwestern, 7 p.m.
SUNDAY / April 25
Detroit at Ohio State, 1 p.m.
FRIDAY, April 30
Virginia at Northwestern, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY / May 1
Temple at Penn State, 3 p.m.
SUNDAY / May 2
Ohio State at Johns Hopkins, 12 p.m.
Florida at Northwestern, 1 p.m.
RANKINGS
April 13, 2010
LAXPOWER.COM COMPUTER
1. Northwestern (11-0); 2. North Carolina (11-1); 3. Maryland (12-1); 4. Virginia (11-3); 5. Duke (11-3); 6. Penn (9-3); 7. Dartmouth (9-1); 8. Vanderbilt (9-3); 9. James Madison (9-2); 10. Towson (8-3);
11. Syracuse (7-4); 12. Notre Dame (8-4); 13. Loyola, Md. (9-4); 14. Georgetown (7-5); 15. Hofstra (8-3); 16. Stanford (8-5); 17. Albany (9-1); 18. Ohio State (7-4); 19. Boston University (7-6); 20. Denver (10-4).
INTERCOLLEGIATE WOMEN’S LACROSSE COACHES ASSOCIATION
1. Northwestern (11-0); 2. North Carolina (11-1); 3. Maryland (12-1); 4. Duke (11-3); 5. Virginia (11-3); 6. Pennsylvania (9-3); 7. Dartmouth (9-1); 8. Syracuse (7-4); 9. Vanderbilt (9-3); 10. James Madison (9-2);
11. Towson (8-3); 12. Notre Dame (8-4); 13. Loyola, Md. (9-4); 14. Georgetown (7-5); 15. Stanford (8-5); 16. Hofstra (8-3); 17. Boston University (7-6); 18. Penn State (7-5); 19. Ohio State (7-4); 20. William & Mary (7-5).
deBEER / INSIDE LACROSSE MEDIA
1. Northwestern (11-0); 2. North Carolina (11-1); 3. Maryland (12-1); 4. Virginia (11-3); 5. Duke (11-3); 6. Dartmouth (9-1); 7. Pennsylvania (9-3); 8. Vanderbilt (9-3); 9. Towson (8-3); 10. Syracuse (7-4);
11. Notre Dame (8-4); 12. James Madison (8-3); 13. Loyola, Md. (9-4); 14. Georgetown (7-5); 15. Stanford (8-5); 16. Ohio State (7-4); 17. Boston College (8-4); 18. Hofstra (8-4); 19. Penn State (7-5); 20. Boston University (7-6).