The top three seeds all earned wins Wednesday in the WCLA championship quarterfinals, earning berths in Thursday's national semifinals.
No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 UCLA will be joined by No. 5 Northeastern as they compete for the 2024 Division I championship.
For the second straight day, top-seeded Florida got off to a slow start but rallied in the second half for a 14-9 victory over Virginia Tech Club. The pattern of slow starts doesn't seem to bother the Gators.
“We're comfortable making adjustments during the game based on what we see on the field,” coach Ben Churba said. “And a lot of credit for that goes to the players. They are the ones who make the proposals.”
Employing a more patient offense in the second half helped the Gators pull away and claim the program's first national semifinal berth.
Three goals each from senior Isabella Milam and junior Carolee Jones, along with two goals and three assists from junior Brooke Papenfuss, paced the offense, while the Gators' defense limited the Hokies to just two goals in the second half.
“Getting to the Final Four is just another way this team continues to break barriers,” Churba said.
Florida advances to play Northeastern, which also earned its first semifinal berth in program history. The Huskies scored the first four goals against Pitt and never trailed, winning 16-10. A five-goal game from midfielder Eli Moral, including three scores in the first 20 minutes, sparked the fast start. Seniors Hannah Boylan and Molly Burnes each added three goals.
“We didn't do as well as we expected last year at Nationals, so we came in really determined to play well this year,” said Burns, who is also club president.
Northeastern also gained confidence through its success at the Northeast Women's Lacrosse Championship this spring.
“We beat (two-time defending champion) Boston College twice his year, so we knew we had a chance to have some success when we got here,” Burnes said.
Thursday's second semifinal will feature a familiar presence in Georgia, which was the national champion in 2016 and the national runner-up in each of the last two seasons. The Bulldogs showed grit in defeating the Michigan Club, 7-5, in a possession game Wednesday, with sophomore forward Kayleigh Page scoring four of Georgia's goals.
“We stuck with what was working, and it clicked for us on offense today,” Paige said. “We knew isolation plays weren't going to work against Michigan.”
Page said Georgia's loss in the Southeastern Women's Lacrosse League tournament last month served as motivation in Wichita.
“It was devastating to lose in the SWLL tournament, but it was also the wake-up call we needed,” Paige said. “We're excited to play here against teams we haven't seen this year.”
One of those teams will be UCLA, which advanced to the semifinals for the second time with a 12-5 win over Clemson. Freshman Caroline Underwood, one of 10 members of the Bruins' freshman class, scored a game-high four goals to lead the way.
“With so many newcomers on the team, a lot of us didn't know what to expect coming out here at the national tournament,” said Underwood, who was named the national rookie of the year earlier this week. “But now that we are here, we are motivated to win the championship. Everything is a matter of our mentality.”
USA Lacrosse is providing free video streaming of all DI and D-II games throughout the tournament. Video streaming links are available at www.usalacrosse.com/wcla.
Gatorade, Enovis, Lacrosse Specialties and Powell Lacrosse serve as official event sponsors for the 2024 USA Lacrosse WCLA Championships, with local support provided by Wichita Wind Surge, Chick-Fil-A Wichita East, Visit Wichita, Chicken N Pickle of Wichita , Angelo's Italian Catering, Tanganyika Wildlife Park and Butler Creative TV.
