Gainesville, Fla.--Ashley Bruns (Ellicott City, Md.) scored six goals
and the Florida lacrosse team beat New Hampshire 15-3 on a gorgeous
Saturday afternoon at Donald R. Dizney Stadium in Gainesville.

The Wildcats had been ranked as high as No. 12 in the Inside Lacrosse
poll after starting the season with four straight wins. Losses to
Harvard and No. 2 Maryland dropped UNH out of the rankings this week.

“We’ve been trying to put together two 30-minute halves and I think we
were able to successfully do that today,” said head coach Amanda
O’Leary. “It started on Wednesday when we came out and played so well
against Marist, and today we picked up where we left off. That says a
lot for this team. Although they are very young, they’re maturing
quickly.”

New Hampshire (4-3) stormed out of the halftime break with two straight
goals to cut the Gators’ lead to 7-3, but Florida (5-3) shut down the
Wildcat attack and answered with eight-straight goals to end the game.

The defense for UF was outstanding for the second game in a row,
limiting UNH to just 11 shots and three goals. Florida has given up just
six goals on 21 shots in the past two games.

“We put in two new defenses [after losing to Johns Hopkins], and didn’t
have a whole lot of time to put those defenses in,” said O’Leary. “The
players adjusted really well and are coming through with the game plan
that we give them.”

Caroline Chesterman (South Nyack, N.Y.) opened the scoring with a goal
at the 22:11 mark in the first half off an assist from Bruns.

After a seven-minute scoring drought for both sides, the Gators poured
it on. Caroline Cochran (Annapolis, Md.) and Colby Rhea (Abingdon, Md.)
scored to give UF a 3-0 lead, then Bruns scored four-straight goals for
Florida to go into halftime ahead 7-1.

Jenny Simpson and JoJo Curro brought the Wildcats back within four with
back-to-back goals after the break, but goalie Cara Canington (Bel Air,
Md.) and the Gator defense shutout UNH for the final 24:19 of the game.

“Cara was phenomenal today,” said O’Leary. “She came up with some huge
saves in the second half. We had given up two goals in the very
beginning [of the half], so for her to come out and play strong in the
second half is exactly what we needed today.”

Florida opened it up in the final 20 minutes, as Julie Schindel
(Edgewater, Md.) started an 8-0 scoring run. Cochran scored off a pass
from Chesterman, and then Bruns finished a shot in traffic to push the
lead to 10-3.

Captain Brittany Dashiell (Bel Air, Md.) fired a shot past Wildcat
goalie Kathleen O’Keefe for her 15th goal of the season and Rhea scored
twice to give Florida a 10-goal advantage at 13-3. Bruns and senior
Kaley Pendley (Longwood, Fla.) capped the scoring for the final 15-3
margin.

The Gators now have 37 goals in the last two games and have scored 15 or
more goals five times this season, winning all five games.

“It’s a matter of being unselfish,” said O’Leary. “We’ve worked the ball
well offensively and have a lot of different scoring threats, so teams
can’t focus on one particular attacker. We have a lot of depth when it
comes to scoring and that’s really worked to our advantage.”

Bruns tied a season-high with six goals and had three assists to finish
with nine points. She has 19 points (12 goals, seven assists) in the
past two games.

Rhea scored three goals and has six in the past two games. She is one of
three players (Bruns, Dashiell) to have a goal in every game this
season.

“Colby is our worker behind the scenes,” said O’Leary. “She does a lot
of work to open up other attackers so they have scoring opportunities.
We really rely on Colby to do the dirty work and she does it willingly,
and when asked to she can put the bFlorida outshot UNH 37-11 and had 13 draw controls to the Wildcats’
seven. The Gators had 15 ground balls, while New Hampshire recorded
eight.

The Gators homestand comes to close on Wednesday night (March 24), when
Cornell travels to Gainesville for a 6:30 p.m. start. The game will be
televised live on Fox Sports Florida.