Gabi Wiegand just wanted a challenge.
The Florida lacrosse program was a place that could provide it.
The junior attacker from Bay Shore, NY., spent the past two seasons playing for Richmond University where she was selected to the 2011 Atlantic 10 All-Conference Second Team after scoring 33 goals and handing out 13 assists as a sophomore.
However, following last season, Wiegand made the decision that she wanted something different from her college lacrosse experience.
“I wanted to compete at a higher level,” she said. “I wanted to get out of my comfort zone to see how far I could be pushed.”
Wiegand said before her sophomore season she began to see that the Richmond lacrosse program was not advancing in the way she hoped it would. At the end of the year she asked for and was granted her release.
In her request, Wiegand asked to be released to Florida, North Carolina, Northwestern, Duke or Maryland. She visited Gainesville in July and decided it was where she wanted to be.
“When I came here and I saw all of the support, and I got to talk to a lot of the girls, I knew I could be pushed here,” Wiegand said.
Wiegand had been on Gators head coach Amanda O’Leary’s radar since she was in high school. She said Wiegand’s agility and various other physical skills were polished enough that she could step in anywhere and make an impact immediately, but her technical skills were equally impressive the first time she saw her play.
“She had a great stick,” O’Leary said. “She distributed the ball well. She was a great 1 v. 1 dodger... She’s deceptively quick on lateral movements.”
All of those qualities made the transition from Richmond to Florida a rather seamless one for Wiegand. Junior attacker Kitty Cullen, the Gators’ leading scorer in 2011, had heard from friends at Richmond that Wiegand was a great player. She said Wiegand did not disappoint when she got her chance.
“Watching her play the first couple of times, we just knew she was going to be a great addition to our team,” Cullen said. “She came in and she meshed well right away.”
Her impact was obvious in the Gators’ exhibition against the England National Team last Thursday when she scored a game-high five goals and two assists. Her most impressive play of the game came on her first goal, when she wrapped around the left post and put a diving shot past the goalkeeper.
“I was wowed when I saw it,” O’Leary said of the goal,”Then I was like, ‘Yep, if anyone could do it, Gabi could.”
