The Florida Gators women's lacrosse team represents the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in the sport of college

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and are single-sport members of the American Athletic Conference (The American), which they joined in 2018 after four seasons in the Big East Conference. Before joining Big East women's lacrosse, the Gators were members of the

American Lacrosse Conference The American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) was a women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference whose members competed at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All of the ALC's members throughout its histor ...

(ALC), which folded after the 2014 season due to aftereffects of conference realignment. They play their home games in Donald R. Dizney Stadium on the university's

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

campus, and are currently led by head coach

Amanda O'Leary Amanda Moore O'Leary (born 1967), née Amanda Moore and also known by her nickname Mandee O'Leary (and formerly, Mandee Moore), is an American college lacrosse coach and former player. O'Leary was an All-American lacrosse midfielder for the Te ...

. The Gators have won regular-season conference titles in 11 of the 12 completed seasons of the women's lacrosse program's existence, with four each in the ALC and Big East plus two in The American. Additionally, they have won eight conference tournament titles (two ALC, four Big East, two American) and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament six times (2011–2014, 2018, and 2021), with their best NCAA finish being a semifinal berth in 2012.

Background and overview

The

University Athletic Association The University Athletic Association (UAA) is an American athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illinois, Mis ...

(UAA) quickly proceeded from new idea to reality in the creation of its newest sports program—it decided to create a women's

program in 2005, publicly announced the new program in 2006, hired a head coach and joined a conference in 2007, and announced its first recruiting class and began construction of a dedicated lacrosse stadium in 2008.
Florida Lacrosse 2011 Media Supplement
', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 8–9, 43, 49 (2011). Retrieved May 4, 2011. UAA officials selected women's lacrosse for its newest expansion sport because of the booming popularity of lacrosse at the high school level and the rapidly increasing competition available among Division I athletic programs. Although the University of Florida is a long-time member of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) for the other 20 NCAA sports in which it fields varsity teams, the Florida Gators women's lacrosse team competed in the American Lacrosse Conference from 2011 through 2014.''See'
American Lacrosse Conference website
Retrieved May 4, 2011. Among the other 13 SEC member schools, only

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

currently sponsors a varsity women's lacrosse team. Following the dissolution of the ALC after the 2014 season, Florida and Vanderbilt joined the Big East Conference, as associate members in women's lacrosse only, starting with the 2015 season. In October 2017, The American announced that it would start a women's lacrosse league in the 2019 season, with Florida and Vanderbilt joining four full conference members. The first Gators recruiting class of 24 players included seven US Lacrosse first-team high school All-Americans—Caroline Chesterman, Katie Ciaci, Brittany Dashiell, Samantha Farrell, Janine Hiller, Jamie Reeg and Julie Schindel, and US Lacrosse named another five as All-American Honorable Mentions—Ashley Bruns, Lelan Bailey, Jenna Hildebrand, Hayley Katzenberger and Mikey Meagher. Dashiell, Bruns and Farrell, plus Kitty Cullen, Colby Rhea and Haydon Judge, were also named Under Armour All-Americans. Amanda Wedekind was previously named an Under Armour All-American as a rising sophomore in 2006. The Gators' 2009–2010 recruiting class was rated best in the nation.Patrick Carney,
Florida lacrosse starts strong
" ESPN.com (February 25, 2010). Retrieved March 1, 2010.

Team history

The inaugural Florida Gators team played teams from fellow ALC member schools

Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...

, Ohio State, Penn State, Vanderbilt and defending NCAA champion Northwestern, as well as non-conference opponents Cornell, Georgetown, Navy and New Hampshire during the spring 2010 semester. The Gators played their first regular season game on February 20, 2010, posting a 16–6 victory over the Jacksonville Dolphins. The young Gators finished their inaugural season 10–8, including ALC wins over Penn State and Johns Hopkins, and were ranked eighteenth in the country in LaxPower's final power ratings. In only their second season of NCAA competition, the sixth-ranked Gators clinched their first ALC regular season championship by defeating the defending conference champion and second-ranked Northwestern Wildcats 13–11 on April 14, 2011. The Gators completed a perfect 5–0 ALC season three days later when they defeated the seventeenth-ranked

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

8–7. The Northwestern Wildcats edged the Gators 10–9 in the ALC Tournament final, after the Gators defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 16–13 in the semifinal round. The Gators received their first NCAA Tournament bid, seeded fourth in the sixteen-team field on May 9, 2011, and defeated the Stanford Cardinal women's team 13–11 in the first round of the NCAA tournament five days later. The young Gators eventually fell to the veteran

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Associatio ...

13–9 in the quarterfinals ("Elite Eight") of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, finishing their second season with an overall win–loss record of 16–4. In advance of the spring 2012 season, ''

Lacrosse Magazine USA Lacrosse is the national governing body of men and women's lacrosse in the United States. It provides a leadership role in virtually every aspect of the game and has more than 450,000 members throughout the United States, and offers programs ...

'' ranked the Gators as the preseason No. 2 team in the nation. After defeating the No. 1 ranked Northwestern Wildcats, the No. 5 Gators finished the 2012 regular season with a 15–2 overall win–loss record and a perfect 5–0 in the ALC, winning their second regular season conference championship in only their third year of play. The No. 3 Gators made it a clean sweep by trouncing the No. 1 Wildcats 14–7 in the final of the ALC Tournament, and winning their first-ever conference tournament title. Afterward, the Gators were selected as the No. 1 seed in the 2012 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament. The Gators defeated the Albany Great Danes 6–4 in the opening round of the tournament, and overwhelmed the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interco ...

15–2 in the quarterfinals. After leading 12–5 in the tournament semifinal, the team's season ended with a 14–13 sudden-death loss to the Syracuse Orange in double-overtime.

Coaching staff

Florida named

as its inaugural head coach on June 22, 2007.GatorZone.com, Lacrosse, Coaching & Support Staff
Amanda O'Leary
Retrieved May 4, 2011. Before she became Florida's first head coach, O'Leary served as the head coach at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

for fourteen seasons, and was previously an assistant coach at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

and the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

. As a collegiate player, O'Leary was honored as a two-time All-American

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

, where she led her

Temple Owls The Temple Owls are the athletic teams that represent Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current athletic director is Arthur Johnson. The owl has been the symbol and mascot for Temple University since its founding in the 18 ...

team to an NCAA Championship in 1988. Assistant coach Erica LaGrow is a fourth-year Gators assistant.GatorZone.com, Lacrosse, Coaching & Support Staff
Erica LaGrow
Retrieved May 4, 2011. She was a first-team All-

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) midfielder for the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the ''Tar Heel ...

, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2008. LaGrow currently plays for the U.S. Women's Elite Lacrosse team, and was a key player on the U.S. national team that defeated Australia in the gold medal game of the 2009

Federation of International Lacrosse World Lacrosse (WL), formerly the Federation of International Lacrosse, is the international governing body of lacrosse, responsible for the men's, women's, and indoor versions of the sport. It was established in 2008 by the merger of the previo ...

(FIL) Women's World Cup. Assistant coach Caitlyn McFadden is a second-year Gators assistant.GatorZone.com, Lacrosse, Coaching & Support Staff
Caitlyn McFadden
Retrieved May 4, 2011. She played for the Maryland Terrapins, and graduated from the University of Maryland in 2010 after leading the Terps to the 2010 NCAA Championship. McFadden was an IWLCA first-team All-American midfielder in her junior and senior seasons. As a senior, she was the recipient of the Tewaarton Award and

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

, and was named the ACC Player of the Year, the NCAA Tournament Most Valuable Player, and the IWLCA National Midfielder of the Year. The Maryland Terrapins sports program honored her with its Suzanne Tyler Award, given to the University of Maryland female athlete of the year.

Donald R. Dizney Stadium

Completed during the summer of 2009, Donald R. Dizney Stadium hosts the Gators women's lacrosse team.Robbi Andreu,
Lacrosse ready to get 'dream' home
" ''The Gainesville Sun'' (March 8, 2009). Retrieved May 4, 2011. The facility includes a 1,500-seat stadium that runs the length of the game field. The $15 million construction cost was funded entirely by private donors. The facility also includes a second practice field, concessions stands, locker rooms, a training room, and other amenities.GatorZone.com, Lacrosse, Facilities
Donald R. Dizney Stadium at Florida Lacrosse Facility
Retrieved May 4, 2011. At the Gators' first home game, an overflow crowd of 2,214 was present in Dizney Stadium for the Gators' 16–6 win over the Jacksonville Dolphins.

Year-by-year results

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{American Athletic Conference navbox 2010 establishments in Florida Lacrosse clubs established in 2010 College women's lacrosse teams in the United States Lacrosse, Women's Lacrosse teams in Florida American Athletic Conference women's lacrosse Women's sports in Florida