USF's steady climb as a team on the rise in women's lacrosse reached another level Saturday. The Bulls came from behind to beat Vanderbilt 12-9 to clinch the outright American Conference championship in just their second season as a program.
Coach Mindy McCord's team now sets its sights on the conference tournament starting Thursday in Nashville. USF is the No. 1 seed after finishing 6-0 in the conference. The Bulls are 11-4 overall, and all four losses were to ranked teams, including three in the top seven -- Florida, Navy, and Michigan.
USF entered play at Vanderbilt ranked No. 18 in the NCAA's RPI rating.
Redshirt junior Sofia Chepenik led the Bulls with six goals, giving her a team-high 45 for the season. Ava Uphues added pair of scores.
USF entered the game knowing it would be the tournament's top seed because the Bulls held the tie-breaker over second place and defending conference champ James Madison. But McCord had made it clear all week that the Bulls didn't want to share the top spot with anyone.
“When you’re starting a program from scratch, you don’t really know what to expect,” McCord said in the USF Oracle. “Team one exceeded people’s expectations… being able to compete for that championship really set our standard for year two.”
The Bulls now join the Florida Gators as the only Division I women's lacrosse programs to win regular-season conference championships within their first two years of playing.
Vanderbilt was eliminated from qualifying for the conference tornament with the loss.
The Bulls trailed 7-6 at the half but used a sufflcating defense in the final two quarters to turn the game around. They scored the first five goals of the second half to pull ahead, giving them the cushion to hold off Vandy's comeback attempt.
The Commodores pul.ed within two goals with 7:01 to play, but Julia Huxtable's goal with 3:34 to play put the game away for USF.
“Now you have a target on your back,” McCord said leading in to the game at Vandy. “People know you, and now you’ve got to prove it. Our theme has been to prove it every day.”
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