Florida Upsets No. 14 Penn State 13-11
from press release
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Ashley Bruns (Ellicott
City, Md.) scored four goals and had two assists and the Florida
lacrosse team beat No. 14 Penn State to earn their first win in the
American Lacrosse Conference. The Gators used a 5-1 scoring run in
the middle of the second half to open up a five goal lead and they
held on in the closing minutes for the victory.
The defense was the story for Florida (8-4, 1-2 ALC) on Saturday,
holding Penn State (6-4, 0-2) without a shot for nearly 14 minutes
to open the game. After going into the locker room tied at 6, UF
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, but goalie Cara Canington (Bel
Air, Md.) ended the threat with a 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,” said Florida head coach Amanda O’Leary. “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
(Farmingdale, N.Y.) as the Gators jumped out to a 4-0 lead before
PSU had even attempted a shot. The Nittany Lions would not lie down
though, as Hayley Sofarnos and Theresa Bucci scored back-to-back
goals and Penn State outscored the Gators 4-1 over the final nine
minutes of the first half and entered the locker room tied at
six.
“In the locker room we decided what we needed to fix,”
said Canington. “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 (Bel Air, Md.) 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
(Annapolis, Md.) and Caroline Chesterman (South Nyack, N.Y.) 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 back within two, but
Colby Rhea (Abingdon, Md.) answered less than a minute later for
Florida and Bruns and Kitty Cullen (Rockville, Md.) pushed the lead
to five goals with just under five minutes left.
In the closing minutes, Penn State got two goals from Sofarnos and
a goal from Erica Mihm to make the game interesting, but Canington
and the Gator defense tightened up and held on for the final score
of 13-11.
PSU’s Molly Fernandez entered the game with a team-leading 24
points, but freshman defender Haydon Judge (Chestertown, Md.)
matched her step-for-step and 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.
Mihm and Sofarnos scored three goals apiece for Penn State, while
Bucci and Dean each had two goals.
