Saturday, April 6
Highlights
Florida 20, ECU 10
The 17th-ranked Gators defeated East Carolina 20-10 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
Lindsey Ronbeck led the Gators on the offensive front, scoring seven goals against the Pirates – her 12th hat trick this season. Grace Haus also pitched in a hat trick with three goals, while Shannon Kavanagh, Brianna Harris, Madi Hall and Caroline Benitez all followed with two of their own.
Florida won 20-of-32 draw controls on the afternoon, including a career-high five by Cara Trombetta.
The Gators were locked in on defense, causing 11 turnovers on the day, led by six from Trombetta. That not only tied her career-best, but tied Florida's program record for most CTs in a game.
The Gators got the board just over a minute into the game, with Caroline Benitez scoring her eighth goal of the year on a pass from Brianna Harris. Lindsey Ronbeck then added her first free-position goal of the day less than two minutes later to put Florida ahead 2-0.
ECU cut into Florida's lead by one, scoring at the 24:52, but Florida answered with a 6-0 run to take the 8-1 lead with 19:44 left in the first. Shannon Kavanagh kicked off the run, followed by Ronbeck's second goal of the day at the 21:52 mark.
Benitez continued the run with her second goal of the day, this time on a pass from Madisyn Kittell. The Gators were able to take the 7-1 lead on back-to-back goals by Grace Haus and the rally was capped by Harris's first goal of the day to put Florida 8-1.
The Pirates then went on a 4-0 run of their own to cut Florida's lead to just three at 15:44, but three free-position goals over the course of the next six minutes (two from Ronbeck, one from Haus) would once again give the Gators a six-goal lead.
ECU answered with two goals in just over a minute, but Sydney Pirreca and Harris equalized those two and Florida went into the locker room with a 13-8 lead.
The Gators opened up the second half on a 5-0 run to push the game to a running clock. During that run, Ronbeck strung together three goals, while Hall and Kavanagh each pitched in one apiece for the 18-8 lead.
Cincinnati 12, Temple 9
After falling behind early, 4-0, the University of Cincinnati lacrosse team settled in and began clawing back as they eventually took the lead at halftime and held on to defeat visiting Temple, 12-9, in an American Athletic Conference game played Saturday at Gettler Stadium.
The win, which kept the Bearcats undefeated in league play at 3-0, was fueled by the offense coming to life with six different players scoring, including hat tricks from Monica Borzillo and Sam Mlkvy, and the defense standing tall as UC went on an 8-5 run to close the game with the win. The win for UC (9-5) also was the first in the six-game series with Temple (4-9, 1-2 AAC).
Cincinnati improved to 9-5 on the year and 3-0 in the AAC while Temple fell to 4-9 overall and 1-2 in league play. The Bearcats defeated the Owls for the first time in the history of the series, moving to 1-5 all-time against TU.
The win marked the second time this year UC has downed a foe for the first after also defeating UConn earlier (1-10 all-time). The Bearcats have now won six in a row, tying the 2018 team for the longest winning streak in program history.
Borzillo finished with her 10th hat trick of the year and her sixth 'double hat trick' of 2019 as she scored four and assisted on four more. Mlkvy turned in her fifth hat trick of the year and added six draw controls to give her 61 on the season, the most in program history. Giuliana Durso made six saves in the game to record her ninth win of the year, a single-season record for a UC goalie.
The Bearcats stumbled out of the gate in the early going as they saw several shots turned away and turned the ball over while Temple opened a 4-0 lead with 15:13 remaining in the opening half. After not scoring in the first half of the opening stanza and after taking a timeout, the Bearcats began to come alive as Amanda Donovan got things going a she fired in a goal off a pass from Borzillo before Mlkvy scored her first on a pass from Donovan, cutting the lead to, 4-2, with 13:46 showing. The Owls answered back with a goal at the 11:05 mark before UC score the final four goals of the half, turning a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 lead. In that run, Alyssa Adams, Mlkvy, Borzillo and Gianna Napoletano each scored with Napoletano, who shoveled the ball into the goal while being pushed from behind, giving UC its first lead of the day.
After the halftime break, the Owls tied it at six all with a goal at the 25:15 mark before UC received back-to-back scores from Borzillo to make it 8-6. But, Temple scored the next two, making 8-8 with 17:46 remaining. From there, however, the Bearcats would go on to score four of the final five goals to take the win. First, Borzillo scored her fourth for the 9-8 lead and the Kylie Nause got on the board with her first for a 10-8 lead. TU make it 10-9 with a goal at 14:01, but UC responded 30 seconds later with Mlkvy getting her hat trick. After a lot of back and forth and saves by both goalies, the Bearcats added the final goal at the 3:49 mark as Adams scored her second before the defense stood tall and kept the Owls off the board the rest of the way for a 12-9 win.
Vanderbilt 22, UConn 15
Vanderbilt maintained its perfect record at home this season after defeating Connecticut, 22-15, on Sunday afternoon at the Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex.
The Commodores (10-3, 2-1) poured in their highest goal total of the season with 11 goals in each half. Vanderbilt's 22 goals tied a program record for the second-highest single-game total in Commodores history. The program scored 24 goals in a win over Kennesaw State in 2015.
Vanderbilt also set new season highs with 36 total points, 30 ground balls and 25 draw controls.
The Dores were led offensively by Sophie Furlong, who poured in her third five-goal game of the season. She also tallied a personal-best two assists for a career-high seven points.
Joining Furlong in the hat trick club were Melanie Becker, Julie Blaze and Maddie Souza. They finished with three goals apiece and, along with Furlong, combined to tally 14 of Vanderbilt's 22 goals.
Seven other Commodores found the back of the net as Gwyn Devin had two goals while Hadley Brown, Gabby Fornia, Bri Gross, Emily Mathewson, Lexi Smith and Callie Sundin all had one goal. It was the first-career goal for Smith, who came into this season as a redshirt senior defender.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
| WEDNESDAY |
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Villanova |
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Temple |
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3 p.m. |
Philadelphia, Pa. |
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| SATURDAY |
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Florida |
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UConn |
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12 p.m. |
Storrs, Conn. |
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ECU |
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Temple |
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1 p.m. |
Philadelphia, Pa. |
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Vanderbilt |
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Cincinnati |
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1 p.m. |
Cincinnati, Ohio |
Live Stats |