Florida Gators Women's Lacrosse - Background and Overview

Background and Overview

The University Athletic Association (UAA) quickly proceeded from new idea to reality in the creation of its newest sports program—it decided to create a women's lacrosse program in 2005, publicly announced the new program in 2006, hired a head coach and joined a conference in 2007, and announced its first recruiting class and began construction of a dedicated lacrosse stadium in 2008. UAA officials selected women's lacrosse for its newest expansion sport because of the booming popularity of lacrosse at the high school level and the rapidly increasing competition available among Division I athletic programs.

Although the University of Florida is a long-time member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) for the other twenty NCAA sports in which it fields varsity teams, the Florida Gators women's lacrosse team competes in the American Lacrosse Conference (ALC). Among the other thirteen SEC member schools, only Vanderbilt University currently sponsors a varsity women's lacrosse team.

The first Gators recruiting class of twenty-four players included seven US Lacrosse first-team high school All-Americans—Caroline Chesterman, Katie Ciaci, Brittany Dashiell, Samantha Farrell, Janine Hiller, Jamie Reeg and Julie Schindel, and US Lacrosse named another five as All-American Honorable Mentions—Ashley Bruns, Lelan Bailey, Jenna Hildebrand, Hayley Katzenberger and Mikey Meagher. Dashiell, Bruns and Farrell, plus Kitty Cullen, Colby Rhea and Haydon Judge, were also named Under Armour All-Americans. Amanda Wedekind was previously named an Under Armour All-American as a rising sophomore in 2006. The Gators' 2009–2010 recruiting class was rated best in the nation.