Florida Clings to Pressure-Packed 11-9 Quarterfinal Win Over Duke

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — If you were watching the Florida lacrosse team’s NCAA quarterfinal game against Duke Thursday afternoon and decided to turn your attention away from what was shaping up as a rout, you are probably not alone.

The Gators were in total control, racing circles around the Blue Devils with a berth in the final four at stake. Midway through the third quarter, Florida was on the verge of sending the game into running-clock mode with a nine-goal lead. But if you were one of those who perhaps took the dog out for a walk and then went to dinner, you missed what makes this Florida team special.

“We know that we’ll all do whatever it takes to win,’’ sophomore defender Ashley Dyer said. “There was never any doubt in my mind.”

The Gators (20-2) departed Dizney Stadium with an 11-9 victory and third trip to the final four in program history. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t pretty. But it was oh-so-sweet in the end.

In a tale of two halves, the Gators dominated the first half behind an air-tight defense, eight saves by goalkeeper Elyse Finnelle and two goals apiece from Gabbi Koury, Clark Hamilton and Frannie Hahn.

Still, as Florida coach Amanda O’Leary left the field at halftime, she told the ESPNU broadcast team that her team had to be ready for a Duke rally. She was right.

“It just took us a little too long to get going,’’ said veteran Duke coach Kerstin Kimel, who guided the Blue Devils to a win over the Gators with a final four berth at stake in 2011. “In the first half, we played way too much defense against a team that is used to scoring. They forced us into our zone defense.”

The Gators added two more goals early in the third quarter, one by Gianna Monaco and one by Josie Hahn, to go up 11-2. In NCAA women’s lacrosse, a running clock is used when a team leads by 10 or more goals.

Duke (14-6) refused to go away quietly and scored seven consecutive goals to trim the Gators’ lead to two when Carly Bernstein scored with 6:28 remaining. The atmosphere in the Florida section of the stands went from festive to testy.

Meanwhile, O’Leary didn’t blink other than to push away drops of sweat on a sweltering afternoon. The fourth-seeded Gators didn’t play their best game on Sunday against Stanford but found a way to win for the 16th consecutive time.

She knows the Gators are young. She knows they lost a lot of talent from last year’s team that earned the program’s first trip to championship weekend in 12 years. But she also knows they have a competitive spirit that ranks among the best teams she has ever coached.

“I believe in this team,’’ O’Leary said. “Our team responded. That’s a testament to the work they put in. Even when it was 11-9 and it was so many minutes left. I believe in these guys. They want to win too badly. I was super confident. I felt good.”

She finished her thought with a chuckle: “I would have felt better if we had a little more of a lead.”

The Gators avoided more trouble when Duke’s Caitlyn Barrett’s shot hit the post with 5:35 remaining. The Blue Devils kept possession, but the Gators clamped down defensively to force a shot-clock violation.

Finally, momentum was back on their side.

“It gave us a lot of energy,’’ Dyer said. “We really needed a stop at that moment.”

Duke had two more opportunities to cut the lead to a goal in the final minutes, but each time, Florida’s defense stepped up. First, defender Celeste Forte drew a charge against Duke’s Chloe Hunter with 3:09 remaining. Next, with less than a minute remaining, reserve goalkeeper Georgia Hoey, who replaced Finnelle following Bernstein’s goal to make it 11-9, stopped a close-range shot by Callie Hem to preserve a two-goal lead.

The Gators took a timeout and then ran out the clock for their 17th consecutive win and another shot at the program’s first national championship.

Koury, one of five Gators to score two goals Thursday, said the Gators showed their mettle by not giving in when Duke took control in the final 20 minutes.

“They switched up their defense a little bit. So, we had to adjust to that. And I think we learned a lot from this game,’’ Koury said. “Obviously, it wasn't pretty the second half, but moving forward, we can make those adjustments quicker and be able to capitalize earlier. We're feeling pretty confident as a team. It's awesome that we made it to the final four, but obviously, as [Coach] said, that's not our goal. We want to get to the next level.”

The Gators face the North Carolina-Princeton winner in the national semifinals Friday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

O’Leary, the only head coach in the 15-year history of the program, can’t wait to see what her young team does next. They found a way to hold on in a pressure-packed moment Thursday.

“I’m really, really proud of this team for persevering through that second half,’’ she said. “We did what we needed to pull out the win. This is an enormous accomplishment for a team that lost a lot of significant players from last year. It wasn’t a rebuild, it wasn’t a reload, it was just, ‘Let’s go.’ Super proud of this team. They are just willing to put in all on the line. I’m not surprised at all that they have done what they have done.”