GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The thought of sticking around for a fifth season was something
Shannon Kavanagh certainly contemplated. The senior middie still recalls that "awful" day last spring when the Florida lacrosse team left the practice field and learned its 2020 season was over after just eight games, one of which marked one of the program's seminal moments, thanks in no small part from Kavanagh herself.
The COVID-19 freebie season was tempting, but Kavanagh's post-collegiate track to nursing school was the path she chose.
Had she opted to stick around, Kavanagh would have done serious carnage to the Florida record book.
"It would be the '
Shannon Kavanagh Record Book,' " Coach Amanda O'Leary said. "We'd have to name things in the building after her."
Instead, O'Leary and the eighth-ranked Gators gladly will settle for the sterling three-plus seasons their two-time captain has posted, the current 2021 version of which rolled on Saturday with a 19-4 bludgeoning of Temple in the American Athletic Conference Tournament title game at Dizney Stadium. In a rout reduced to a running clock early in the second half, Kavanagh scored six goals, which was one shy of her season high, to pass Kitty Cullen (2010-13) and move into No. 3 on the program's all-time list with 207. She also drew within one point of matching the 283 career points posted by Ashley Bruns (2010-13), who sits at No. 3 in that category, as well.
Kavanagh will have at least one more match in a UF uniform to pad those statistics, with the Gators (16-2) poised to learn their NCAA Tournament fate Sunday night. How many more games will be up to Kavanagh and her teammates.
"Every year, we get to this point in the season where each game could be our last, and now that I'm a senior I go into every game knowing it could be my last. I'm just going to take them as they come, but also play each like it's my last game," said Kavanagh, the Smithtown, N.Y. product with the all-around game that wraps goal-scoring prowess rivaled by her draw-control domination and outstanding defense. "I'm definitely soaking it all in, especially when playing at home."
Florida put in a bid to host the first two rounds of the tournament, but in the event the NCAA sends the Gators on the road Kavanagh will have made the most of her final day at "The Diz."
She wasted little time in setting the AAC title game's tone.
Two and half minutes in, Kavanagh took a pass from freshman attacker
Maggi Hall and bounced a 1-0 lead past Owls keeper Shana Hecht. Three minutes later, Kavanagh made the play of the day — if not one of the year — when she netted a pass from attacker
Brianna Harris while moving left to right in the crease. In one motion, Kavanagh took the pass, then flicked it behind her back and blindly beat Hecht for a 2-0 UF lead.
The margin was 5-0 before the 11th minute, and after Temple drew within 5-2 the Gators blitzed to six straight goals, including two more from Kavanagh, to lead 11-2 at the break. She added Goals 5 and 6 in the second half before O'Leary emptied her bench.
It wasn't quite the show Kavanagh put on Feb. 15, 2020, when UF went on the road to face top-ranked defending NCAA champion Maryland. The Terrapins had not lost a home match in eight years. The Gators had not beaten a No. 1 team in eight years. Kavanagh scored eight goals that day, including the game-winner in a 15-14 upset with less a minute to play.
That season, of course, ended abruptly and unexpectedly four weeks later. But as Kavanagh demonstrated Saturday in helping lead her team to a seventh straight conference tournament title (two in the AAC, four as a member of the Big East, one while playing in the American Lacrosse Conference), there are still memories to be made and goals to be scored. In bunches, apparently.
"She's that kid that brings a smile every day to the practice field, no matter matter how she's feeling. She's going to be put it on the line every single day and for that the respect she has from her teammates is off the charts," O'Leary said. "She's just that everything kid, on and off the field; everything you want as a coach. You wish you'd have 40
Shannon Kavanaghs in your arsenal."
For now, one will do.
"I know it's coming to an end, but it's hard to be nostalgic about it because I'm not out of here yet," Kavanagh said. "We still have a job to do."
In a perfect orange-and-blue world, about three more weeks worth.
