Sophomore attacker Emma LoPinto's four-goal contribution marked her 11th hat trick of the year and led the Gators to a win Saturday.
The No. 8 Florida Gators (14-3, 5-1 AAC) beat the Old Dominion Monarchs (4-13, 0-6 AAC) 17-5 at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex in Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday afternoon to close out the regular season.
Old Dominion scored the first goal within the opening two minutes of the game. Florida gained momentum and responded with four consecutive goals.
ODU put up two additional points to bring the game within one towards the bottom of the first quarter.
Neither team scored for the first six minutes of the second quarter. Junior attacker Danielle Pavinelli stopped the drought when she found senior midfielder Emily Heller off a man-down opportunity to put Florida up 5-3.
Junior attacker Maggi Hall picked up a loose ground ball off a save deflection and snuck one past the goalkeeper to record another point for the Gators.
A little more than a minute had passed when LoPinto and Pavinelli worked together to push Florida’s lead to 7-3.
Junior midfielder Madison Waters added to the scoring column; she received a pass from Hall and scored to finish the first half with the Gators up 8-3.
Old Dominion cut Florida’s lead to four after it secured the first goal of the third quarter.
Less than a minute later, Pavinelli answered with her first goal of the day. She found her groove and converted a free position attempt for the Gators’ tenth goal.
Florida did not let another Monarch goal pass redshirt junior goalkeeper Sarah Reznick for the remainder of the third period. The Gators ended the third quarter up 14-4.
With 9:47 remaining, freshman attacker Gianna Monaco extended Florida's lead to 15-4 by scoring the insurance goal.
Although Old Dominion managed to score a goal to reduce the deficit to 10, freshman attacker Ava Tighe scored twice in the last four minutes of the game to seal a 17-5 triumph for Florida.
The Gators will next play the East Carolina Pirates Thursday at 7:15 p.m. as the No. 2 seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament. All semifinal games, as well as the final game, will be streamed on ESPN+.
Contact Kate Wiggins @kwiggins@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @katewigginz.
Kate Wiggins is a second-year advertising major and women's lacrosse reporter for The Alligator. Catch her pumping iron at Southwest Rec, double-scooting her friends to class, or dancing around at the nearest EDM concert.
