Gators Lacrosse Takes On Northwestern in Final Four

The Florida Gators will face the top seed Northwestern Wildcats in the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Semifinals Friday.

The Gators are ranked No.10 while the Wildcats are ranked No.1 and are the defending national champs. The showdown will be at 3 p.m. (ESPNU) at WakeMed Soccer Park, in Cary, N.C. This is the first time Florida is heading back to the final four since 2012.

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The Gators’ Journey

Florida lacrosse beat No. 4 University of Maryland 15-9 last week to move onto the final four. The Gators are going into the NCAA Championship Weekend 20-2 in overall games and went 6-0 in the American Athletic Conference to win the AAC Tournament.

The last matchup for the Wildcats and the Gators was in 2014, where the Gators lost 12-11. However, Florida leads 6-4 in all-time game matchups against Northwestern.

This weekend brings a lot of pressure on the Gators. Not only has it been 12 years since the Orange and Blue made it to the final four, but if they beat Northwestern it will be the first time Florida has ever been to the Championships.

There are high hopes for Florida this weekend as the squad has six Gators who earned IWLCA All-Region team honors, and five that earned Inside Lacrosse All-American titles last week.

Elyse Finnelle, Maggi Hall, Liz Harrison, Emily Heller and Danielle Pavinelli were selected to the IWLCA South Region First Team, along with Kaitlyn Davies who earned south region second team honors. Harrison was additionally named Inside Lacrosse Second Team All-American, Finnelle and Hall who were chosen to the third team, and Pavinelli and Heller earning honorable mention awards.

For the Wildcats

The Wildcats are coming into Friday’s game sitting pretty, ranked No. 1 with a 17-2 record.

This weekend is the Wildcats’ 15 appearance in the Championships. They have won eight national championships out of their previous 14 appearances. Northwestern’s most recent win came last season when they defeated Denver University in the Final Four matchup, and then beat out Boston College 18-6 in the finals, to take the title.

After a very solid season so far, the Wildcats are pretty confident going into this weekend. Izzy Scane, a sixth-year star, was names the Big Ten Conference’s Attacker of the Year. This season alone, she has 75 goals, and if she reaches 85, she will become the first player to lead the nation in goals scored in back-to-back seasons since Jen Adams of Maryland (1999-2001).

The other Final Four teams

The other two teams who earned their spots in the Final Four are Boston College and Syracuse University. Boston is ranked No.2 and is 18-3, while Syracuse is No.3 and 16-5 overall.

This is Syracuse’s second-straight appearance in the NCAA Championship Weekend and tenth overall. However, this weekend will be Boston’s seventh-straight appearance in the NCAA Championship Weekend.

The two will also go head-to-head on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

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Up Next

The winner of both semifinals will play Sunday at noon. The winner of that game will be named the 2024 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Champion.