Hillier Shows Gators Far From One Dimensional Squad In Win Over Stanford
Sunday, May 15, 2011 | Lacrosse, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It poured and poured and poured, forcing the first NCAA Tournament lacrosse game in Florida history to be delayed five hours on Saturday.
Once Florida's 13-11 win over Stanford finally started, it poured again as the Gators scored the game's first four goals in a little more than five minutes.
And then the drought arrived.
The Gators failed to score for more than 24 minutes as Stanford erased the early deficit to tie the game. With the momentum clearly on the Cardinal's side and a dream season starting to wake up, Florida's Janine Hillier scored the first of her career-high-tying four goals, putting the Gators up 5-4 with 13.2 seconds left before halftime.
The sophomore midfielder from Farmingdale, N.Y., was just getting started.
Once the teams came back from halftime, Hillier struck again 20 seconds into the second half to give Florida some much-needed distance on the scoreboard. However, just as Florida looked to be pulling away, Stanford stormed back to take the lead twice and later tie the game at 10 on Sarah Flynn's goal with 13:50 remaining.
The Gators were back to where they started. Enter Hillier's hot stick once again.
She scored back-to-back goals 65 seconds apart to put the Gators ahead for good and into the second round. Hillier's performance on Saturday continued a streak that has produced 12 goals on 19 shots over the past four games.
Hillier's production not only helped the Gators advance, but provided leading scorer Kitty Cullen with a scoring partner against a Stanford defense that shadowed Cullen's every move and arrived in Gainesville intent on taking away attacker Ashley Bruns' passing lanes from behind the net.
Hillier's performance marked the second time in three games she has scored four goals after not scoring more than three in a game this season.
“She's had some struggles in the past of just getting those shots on goal,'' Cullen said. “She's a great talented player. She is athletic, she is fast and she is able to get by her defenders. Now, having her finish is just helping us so much, especially going into the rest of the NCAA game.”
With Stanford's defensive strategy paying off after a goal from Brittany Dashiell and Cullen's three scores gave the Gators an early 4-0 lead -- the Cardinal went more to a zone defense to slow Florida's attack – Gators coach Amanda O'Leary applauded Hillier and her teammates' ability to respond.
“We know goals are going to go into the net,'' O'Leary said. “They did a great job [on us defensively] and I think our team did a great job of adjusting. For a second-year program to be able to make those adjustments at halftime on the fly is pretty impressive.''
Hillier's four goals give her 32 on the season, fourth on the team.
She appears to be peaking at the perfect time as the Gators hope for an extended stay in the tournament.
“Hard work is paying off,'' Hillier said. “Just having such great chemistry on offense, it's just rubbing off on each player. I just feel like because we're playing well as a whole, that's what is making each individual play well.''
Hillier's best work of the season paid off huge for the Gators on Saturday at crucial times, none more than her score right before halftime slowed Stanford's momentum.
“In the first five minutes of the game and the first two minutes of the second half and the last 30 seconds of the first half is kind of where it killed us,'' Stanford coach Amy Bokker said. “We needed to be able to play in those minutes in and out of the breaks.''
The Gators host the Duke-Penn winner in the second round for a berth in the NCAA semifinals. If they are going to keep advancing, more performances like Hillier's on Saturday can only help.
Cullen was her usual self on Saturday, scoring four goals as the center of attention. But in the first NCAA Tournament game in school history, Hillier took over for a change in the clutch.
“The more threats you have offensively, the better you are going to be,'' O'Leary said. “If they shut down Ashley, we have six other threats. If they shut down Kitty, we have six other threats.
“I think that's the great thing about our team. We are not one-dimensional. We have multiple players who can score and I think we saw that today.''
