Gators lacrosse defeated Scotland\u2019s national team in Wednesday\u2019s exhibition game, 19-8. <\/p>\n
While the game may not have affected Florida\u2019s standing, it showcased the team\u2019s burgeoning young talent. Gators coach Amanda O\u2019Leary enjoyed the fun experience of playing an international team and shared excitement for the opportunity it presented to the underclassmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those who haven\u2019t necessarily seen the field as of yet, it was a great audition,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n
The starters for the game were not Florida\u2019s traditional players, like Theresa Bragg or Clark Hamilton, but mainly underclassmen getting their first taste of collegiate play \u2013 and they took advantage.<\/p>\n
Freshmen Kennedy Richardson, Alexa Stone, Jameson Swords and redshirt freshman Sophia Cardella had their first goals as Gators, with Richardson having her first career start as well. Freshman Maya Soskin also made her starting debut at goalkeeper, ending the night with two saves.<\/p>\n
The Gators attacked the goal and looked to score on every possession. They outshot Scotland the entire game, 39 to 19. Florida\u2019s offensive aggression forced Scotland to foul, unable to stop the Gators weaving around their defender.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our fight and them getting up and down the field was great,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n
Scotland struggled to stop senior attacker Ava Tighe. In her first appearance this season, Tighe had four goals, getting her second career hat trick in the first half and setting a new career best in goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sophomore Ryann Frechette was also a problem for Scotland. She mirrored Tighe with four goals, setting a career high and notching her first hat trick as a Gator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Florida also improved in draw controls this game after struggling in that area to start the season. The Gators won 22 of 29 draw controls, increasing offensive possessions and opportunities to capitalize on. They will need to recreate this level of production throughout the season to ensure their opponents do not get more chances on offense, like in their loss against Michigan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite not seeing the field, the veterans and starters contributed to the game, specifically the team\u2019s energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re doing the Macarena when Ava scored,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s indicative of our team culture that the support is certainly there for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n The regular season continues Saturday as Florida travels to play No. 7 Clemson. The Tigers are currently 3-1, only losing to the No. 4\/5 Stanford Cardinals by one goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a fantastic team, and we\u2019re going to really need to bring our best game,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n Category: Gator Sports<\/a>, Gators Lacrosse<\/a>, Lacrosse<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gators lacrosse defeated Scotland\u2019s national team in Wednesday\u2019s exhibition game, 19-8. While the game may not have affected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[76910,76911,76912,76913,76914,76915,17066,16974,28,76916,30,29,38640,76917,76918,76919,76920,76921,76922,76923,76924],"class_list":{"0":"post-160647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-gatorslacrosse","9":"tag-alexa-stone","10":"tag-amanda-oleary","11":"tag-ava-tighe","12":"tag-career-firsts","13":"tag-clark-hamilton","14":"tag-clemson","15":"tag-exhibition","16":"tag-florida","17":"tag-florida-gators-lacrosse","18":"tag-florida-headlines","19":"tag-florida-news","20":"tag-hat-trick","21":"tag-jameson-swords","22":"tag-kennedy-richardson","23":"tag-maya-soskin","24":"tag-opportunitiy","25":"tag-ryann-frechette","26":"tag-scotland","27":"tag-sophia-cardella","28":"tag-theresa-bragg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}