Florida’s defense could not stand up to Johns Hopkins’ offense — specifically attacker Candace Rossi — in an 16-8 loss Saturday in Baltimore, Md.
In its first American Lacrosse Conference match, UF (3-3, 0-1 ALC) also had its offensive deficiencies exposed by the Blue Jays.
Midfielder Kitty Cullen led UF with three scores while Colby Rhea and Brittany Dashiell added two each. Attacker Ashley Bruns tacked on one score and two assists.
Florida was plagued defensively by mistakes on routine plays. It allowed eight free-position shots and converted just 12 of 25 chances to clear the ball. The team also was unable to stop Rossi, as she put away five goals.
“We weren’t sliding the [double team] to her early enough,” UF coach Amanda O’Leary said. “Candace did a great job of just one move and she got by us, and we didn’t have the help, so she caused us all kinds of problems.”
She said the plan going into the game was to try to contain Rossi and Blue Jays midfielder Colleen McCaffre, but UF did not play good man-to-man defense when the double teams did not come. McCaffre accounted for three of the Blue Jays’ scores.
On offense, the troubles for O’Leary’s squad were magnified. The Gators had 31 turnovers to the Blue Jays' 19, and they took only 16 shots to Hopkins’ 33.
“In order to play offense, you have to have the ball, and we didn’t have the ball very often,” O’Leary said. “Every ground ball seemed to be a Hopkins ball. They would send three to the ball, and we would send one, and they would come up with it, which was not surprising.”
Of the turnovers, O’Leary said having 31 in a game was absurd and something her team must fix by improving possession and protection.
UF trailed 7-5 at the half, but it was unable to recover in the second period as the Blue Jays had nine scores to just three from the Gators.
“We did not come out of the locker room inspired at all,” O’Leary said. “We came out and let them dictate the game, and we can’t do that. We can’t allow opposing teams to dictate the game. We just played into their hands. We didn’t have a whole lot of possessions with the ball, and when we did, we weren’t able to capitalize offensively.”
Internet reports contributed to this story.
