The first two seeds in the upcoming American Athletic Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship are set as Florida earned its third consecutive American regular-season title with a win against Temple. The Owls are assured of the No. 2 seed entering the final week of regular-season play.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23
Florida 18, Temple 7
East Carolina 15, Cincinnati 9
Vanderbilt 20, Old Dominion 9
NO. 10 FLORIDA 18, TEMPLE 7
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Eleven straight. That's how many regular season conference championships the No. 10 Florida lacrosse team has taken home in the 13-year history of the program.
The Gators defeated the Temple Owls 18-7 on Senior Day at Donald R. Dizney Stadium to clinch at least a share of the American Athletic Conference title. With a win against ECU on April 30, Florida can secure the outright championship. In the three complete seasons in the AAC, the Gators have won the regular season title in each of them.
UF has now won 56-straight conference games and 44-straight regular season conference contests en route to its 11th regular season title.
"This was a total team effort today," said Florida head coach Amanda O'Leary. "We were making things work on the offensive end, our defense came out and played really solid. Sarah (Reznick) did a great job in the goal and when Julia (Hammerschlag) came off the bench, she was lights out in the goal. We were able to honor our seniors exactly how we wanted to today."
With the victory, Florida has now won nine-consecutive games and moves to 11-4 on the year and 4-0 in league play, while Temple drops to 10-5 overall and 3-1 in the conference.
Danielle Pavinelli led the way offensively with five goals on the afternoon, while Emerson Cabrera notched her second hat trick of the season, finishing the day with three.
Emma LoPinto, Emily Heller, Josie Hahn and Shelton Sawers each found the back of the cage twice for Florida, while Ashley Gonzalez and Paisley Eagan netted one goal apiece.
LoPinto also dished out a team-high three assists in the game, followed by two apiece from Gonzalez, Maggi Hall, Heller and Pavinelli.
Florida won the battle in the draw circle, coming up with 15-of-29 in the game. Heller posted a career-high seven to lead the way, while Hahn tallied a personal-best three.
The Gator defense held the Owls to 7-of-28 shooting in the game, just a .280 shooting percentage. Emma Wightman posted a team-high two caused turnovers on her Senior Day.
Hall picked up three groundballs in the victory to lead the Gators, while Leigh Lingo and Sarah Reznick each registered two.
Reznick recorded six saves on a .426 save percentage during her 52:31 in cage on Saturday afternoon. Julia Hammerschlag registered two saves of her own, while allowing no goals for a 1.000 save percentage between the pipes.
The Gators close out the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday when the 22nd-ranked Jacksonville Dolphins come to town. Opening draw is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
EAST CAROLINA 15, CINCINNATI 9
CINCINNATI, Ohio. – Ellie Bromley scored a career-high six goals and East Carolina put itself in position to clinch a spot in the American Athletic Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship tournament with a 15-9 victory over Cincinnati Saturday afternoon at Nippert Stadium.
Bromley converted six of her seven shots on goal while Leah Bestany, Sophia Locicero and Erin Gulden chipped in with two goals apiece. Brynn Knight collected seven saves. As for the Bearcats, Kylie Nause netted a squad-best three goals.
Cincinnati held a slight 36-33 edge in total shots, but East Carolina had more shots on goal (22-16). The Pirates also converted 16 of 17 clear attempts while the Bearcats had the advantage in ground balls by a 15-13 margin.
Cincinnati started off the contest with a ton of momentum, holding ECU scoreless and using a pair of Nause tallies to lead 4-0 after the first quarter.
The Pirates flipped the script in the second quarter, pitching a shutout themselves as Bromley and Bestany scored twice while Legar added a goal to help East Carolina to a 5-4 halftime edge.
Following a closely contested third quarter that saw the Pirates outscore the Bearcats 3-2, it was nearly all ECU in the fourth. Gulden notched the first two goals of the final period to make it 10-6 in favor of the Pirates before Cincinnati grabbed three of the next four to pull within 11-9. That was as close as the home side would get, however, as East Carolina scored the final four goals of the contest to seal the win.
VANDERBILT 20, OLD DOMINION 9
NORFOLK, Va. – Vanderbilt used a 9-0 run in the first half Saturday to take down Old Dominion 20-9 at L.R. Hill Sports Complex.
The Commodore offense was fueled by Gabby Fornia’s six points on one goal and five assists and Maddie Souza’s five-goal performance. The Commodores saw 12 different players score.
Vanderbilt took an early lead and never turned back. Souza opened the scoring two minutes into the game off an assist from Melissa Hawkins. Goals by Callie Sundin and Megan Graziano pushed Vanderbilt’s lead to 3-1 in the closing minutes of the first period.
With just 15 seconds remaining in the first, Paige Gunning made a nice save and launched the ball towards midfield where an open Ellie Hilsabeck caught the pass and turned towards goal. Hilsabeck found an open Kemper Robinson and Robinson beat both the clock and the keeper to put the Dores in front 4-1.
Vanderbilt maintained momentum in the second period and opened things up with a 6-0 run in the first half of the quarter. A Nancy Halleron goal with 20 seconds left in the first half made it a 14-4 game and cued the running clock.
The scoring pace slowed in the third quarter as the clock continued to run. Maddie Souza recorded her fifth goal of the game and Kemper Robinson tallied her first career hat trick as Vanderbilt led Old Dominion 18-6 through three quarter.
Vanderbilt reached the 20-goal mark for the first time this season on a Cate Bradley goal with a little under six minutes remaining.
The Monarchs outscored the Commodores 3-2 in the period, but Vanderbilt (9-6, 2-2 AAC) left Norfolk with a 20-9 victory.