Gator LAX starts program victoriously

The Gator women’s lacrosse team began the program’s inaugural season with a 10-point lead over the Jacksonville University Dolphins on Saturday at home. The Gators were head the entire game, going into halftime 11-4 and ending the night 16-6.

Freshman midfielder from Millersville, Md., Sam Farrell (#15) scored the first-ever goal for the team a mere minute and 50 seconds into the game.

“It felt really good,” Sam says. “It was supposed to be a pass, but a goal’s a goal.”
With every Gator goal, the marketing team threw t-shirts into the stands. Lucky number 13, Ashley Brun, freshman attack from Ellicott City, Md., was the high scorer with four goals and four assists.

“They performed really well for a first game,” says Amanda O’Leary, head coach who comes to the Gators after 14 years of coaching the Yale Bulldogs. Twenty-four of her 29 players are freshmen and none of them had played in front of such a large crowd before.

Saturday night’s attendance was 2,114 fans. The new, sustainable Donald R. Dizney Stadium dedicated during the game holds 1,500. Those locked out after full-capacity watched the first half of the game from outside the north end zone gates.

“All that mattered is that they got behind us,” Coach O’Leary says. “Obviously your home crowd makes all the difference in the world.”

The next Gator home game is March 4 at 6:30pm against St. Bonaventure.

-Bridget Higginbotham; Photos by Rodney Rogers