Florida is a girls school. With all due respect to Florida State’s days as a women’s college, UF is the place to be for the fairer sex in the Sunshine State
Roland Thornqvist and the Gators women’s tennis team just won their second consecutive national title. Florida will say goodbye to only one senior — Joanna Mather — so expect another title run next season.
Amanda O’Leary has guided the lacrosse team to its first Final Four in program history. It only took O’Leary three years to get this far and, like tennis, she only loses Caroline Cochran, who suffered an ACL tear in the Gators’ home opener March 15.
If the lacrosse team wins the ultimate prize this weekend, UF’s females will have produced two national titles in a span of six days, adding to an already impressive collection of hardware in 2012.
Gymnastics, indoor track and field and tennis have all claimed Southeastern Conference championships this calendar year, and lacrosse swept the American Lacrosse Conference regular season and tournament titles.
Volleyball advanced to the Elite Eight, soccer placed second in the SEC Tournament and women’s basketball punched a ticket to The Big Dance after a long absence.
Football brings in the money, but right now it’s the girls building up the program prestige. Eleven of the 12 women’s sports at UF have won a conference championship in the last five years.
The men have enjoyed their fair share of triumphs. The indoor track and field squad claimed its third straight national championships in the spring. Baseball has the tools to avenge its College World Series loss last summer.
But the moneymakers? Eh.
Basketball experienced a resurgence the last two seasons, but both runs have fallen disappointingly short, each ending with blown second-half leads in the Elite Eight.
As far as football is concerned, the situation is pretty desolate. Urban Meyer had unprecedented short-term success at UF, but he left the program in shambles.
Will Muschamp, in his first head-coaching job, has to clean up the mess, and I hate to break it to you, but it’s going to take a while.
Football will make the big bucks, and The Swamp will fill up with 90,000 fans every Saturday in games not played against Furman, but for now, it merely serves to fund the real athletic juggernauts at this school.
Welcome to Gainesville, where, in the immortal words of Beyonce, “[Girls] run this mother.”
Contact Joe Morgan at joemorgan@alligator.org.
