It was the Ashley Bruns Show in Donald R. Dizney Stadium on Wednesday night.
The freshman attacker led the Gators (4-3, 0-1 American Lacrosse Conference) with six goals — a new career high — and four assists in Florida’s 22-3 win over Marist. The win ended UF’s two-game losing streak.
Five of her six scores were unassisted as Bruns had her way with the defense throughout the match, often rolling from behind the goal and dumping the ball into the net.
Bruns credited the defense and the rest of her teammates for her performance on the night.
“You can’t do anything without each other,” she said. “It’s not just me.”
UF coach Amanda O’Leary said Bruns is the Gators’ point guard whose work ethic has been the key to her success on the field.
“She didn’t force a lot of shots, so I was really excited for her effort and the fact that, if you look at her shooting percentage, it was very high,” O’Leary said. “She was feeding the ball, she was putting goals in the back of the net, and that’s really what we ask from her.”
Bruns has been doing extra shooting in practice and her success in games earlier in the season has helped boost her confidence.
It wasn’t just Bruns who did the scoring though. Attacker Caroline Cochran and Midfielders Colby Rhea and Julie Schindel each added three scores while midfielder Brittany Dashiell accounted for two more goals.
Midfielder Kitty Cullen aided the scoring, dishing out three assists Wednesday night.
UF got off to a slow start, taking almost six minutes to score its first goal, but after that, the Gators started to pour it on, scoring five goals over the next 15 minutes to take a 6-0 lead with just more than 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
With just one second left in the half, Bruns buried the ball in the net on a broken play to give the Gators a commanding 12-2 lead at the break.
The second half was even less difficult for UF because the Red Foxes could not slow O’Leary’s squad on offense. UF reeled off nine goals before Marist midfielder Morgan Dillon scored the team’s third and final goal.
O’Leary said she was ecstatic at how her team rebounded after suffering back-to-back losses.
“It took us six games to get there, but we finally saw a game where we played a solid 60 minutes, so I’m really proud of this group and of their effort tonight,” O’Leary said. “They were really unselfish. Offensively, they moved the ball around.
“A lot of different people were able to score. Defensively, they played as a team which was something that we’ve been really trying to pride ourselves on, playing more as a defensive unit versus seven individuals.”
