Gators vs Buckeyes ... LAX-style
Friday, May 4, 2012 | General, Lacrosse, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Maybe 15 minutes after attacker Cara Facchina zipped the ball into the net with just 11.7 seconds left in overtime, our blogging friends @BourbonMeyer threw this photo out on Twitter, saying “here we go again.”
For sure, Florida and Ohio State have had their share of high-stakes showdowns the last few years, so we'll see tonight where a meeting in the semifinals of the American Lacrosse Conference Tournament at Dizney Stadium stacks up in what has become a fairly frequent non-conference rivalry.
“They're a very, very good team,” Gators coach Amanda O'Leary said.
UF (15-2) earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament by going unbeaten in five regular-season ALC matches, capped with an 8-7 upset of reigning national champion Northwestern. O'Leary and her players watched Thursday night as the fourth-seeded Buckeyes (11-5) rallied against fifth-seeded Vanderbilt from two goals down in the second half to force overtime, then won it with Facchina's free-position goal in the closing seconds of the extra period.
“We call it 'earn position' [because] you work so hard to put yourself in those spots,” OSU coach Alexis Venechanos said. “Their like foul shots. They're not really free. And athletes have to step up.”
The Buckeyes did when it mattered and thus forced a rematch of a tough game played between the two back on March 24. The Gators won that one 10-8 at home.
Venechanos didn't get too philosophical about all the intangible factors of the next meeting -- and no, the 2006 BCS game, 2007 Final Four or 2012 Gator Bowl didn't come up -- choosing to appreciate the the win and situation.
“We have momentum and we know Florida is a very strong team that plays very strong here,” she said. “We're excited just to move on. We're going to be in the moment.”
O'Leary, no doubt appreciative of the bye into the semis and being at home for the tournament, said all the right things, too.
“As you can see, they're a very, very good team,” said O'Leary, whose team ranks second in the nation in scoring (16.7 goals per game) and first in defense (6.65). “Offensively, they have a lot of different scorers. Defensively, they play a high pressure defense. I think it's going to be a challenge to move the ball around very quickly and look to hit cutters. They also are good [one-on-one] drivers. We have our work cut out for us.”
And fans have another Florida-Ohio State date to talk about it.
