The Florida Gators earned its first ever American Lacrosse Conference Tournament Championship by defeating No. 1 Northwestern 14-7 Saturday at Donald R. Dizney Stadium in Gainesville. Freshman Shannon Gilroy led Florida with seven goals (on only nine shots!) while Junior Kitty Cullen added three more. The Gators victory left both teams at 17-2 on the season, with both of Northwestern's losses coming at the hands of the Gators.

Next up is the NCAA tournament where the Gators will try to win the program's first lacrosse national title in only its third year of existence. Congratulations go out to this amazing team and to Coach Amanda O'Leary, as they continue to exceed even the most optimistic of expectations!

These are the days when it truly is great to be a Florida Gator. Starting with baseball, the No. 5 Gators defeated the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats 5-1 Friday in Lexington to assure a weekend series victory over the 'Cats (which helps soothe the sting of losing yet another top hoops recruit who is still considering UK). Florida was led by second baseman Casey Turgeon's 3 for 4 night and some great pitching out of the bullpen. Karsten Whitson started for the Gators and scattered six hits over 4 2/3 innings of work, but yielded only a single run. From there, Bobby Poyner, Greg Larson and Steven Rodriguez shut down the 'Cats the rest of the way, with Poyner earning the win and Rodriguez notching the save. The Gators improve to 35-12 on the season (14-9 in the SEC) and a second place tie with Kentucky...1 1/2 games back of South Carolina in the East. Florida will look to finish off the sweep of Kentucky Saturday, with the first pitch at 2pm.

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Helped most by the national title won by the mens' indoor track and field team, the Gators jumped from ninth place to fifth place in the latest Learfield Sports Director's Cup standings (formerly Sears Directors' Cup). Florida's point total was also boosted through solid finishes by both basketball squads, both swim teams and the women's indoor track and field team.

The Gators are ahead of where they typically sit at this point, but there is so much work still left to do.

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The No.1 ranked Florida gymastics team overcame a rare stumble by super freshman Kytra Hunter on the beam and easily won the Raleigh Regional with a score of 197.325. Florida's favorite whipping boy, THE Ohio State Buckeyes were a distance second with a score of 196.225. The score may sound somewhat close, but a full gymnastics point is like 2 touchdowns in football.

Junior Ashanee Dickerson came up huge for the Gators, winning the all-around with a score of 39.650 and taking first place honors on the vault and bars (tying teammate Alaina Johnson for the top score on both events). Johnson placed second in the all-around with a score of 39.550. Junior Marissa King took top honors on the beam with a 9.925 and Hunter earned the highoest scre on the floor exercise.

The Gators next travel to Duluth, Georgia (the site of their recent SEC Championship) to compete in the NCAA Championships April 20-22. Twelve teams (top two teams from each of the six regionals) will compete on Friday, April 20, in two rotations, with the three highest scoring teams in each rotation advancing to the Super Six to compete for the national title the following evening.

Good Friday, indeed. Florida's athletic teams came to play today and started the Easter weekend in grand fashion by blanking every team in their paths.

The No. 9 men's tennis team started things off by shutting out Arkansas, 7-0, in Fayetteville. The Gators' fourth straight conference victory improved their overall record to 13-7 on the season and 6-3 in the SEC.

Not to be outdone, the No. 2 women's tennis team also shut out Arkansas, 7-0, in Gainesville, extending their program record home win streak to an amazing 104 matches. Those Gators are now 16-1 on the season and a perfect 9-0 in conference play with two conference matches remaining.

The No. 6 ranked softball team kept the shutouts coming with a 5-0 victory over OIe Miss in the first of a three game weekend series in Gainesville. Ace pitcher Hannah Rogers hurled a two-hit shutout, her eighth of the season. Freshman designated hitter Bailey Castro led the Gators offensively, going 2-for-3 with her second home run of the season. The Gators improved to 33-4 on the season and 13-2 in SEC play.

Finally, the No, 1 baseball team completed the perfect night with a 7-0 shutout victory over LSU in Gainesville to even their three-game series with the Tigers at one apiece. Junior Mike Zunino went 3-for-5 for Florida, with two doubles and three RBI, and sophomore pitcher Jonathan Crawford was brilliant on the mound for the Gators, scattering three hits over six scoreless innings. The Gators improved their record to 25-6 on the season and 7-4 in the SEC.

So, if my math is correct, that makes four wins by a combined 26-0 tally, all against SEC competition. Now THAT is a pretty Good Friday in my book. What a great way to kick off an important and very busy weekend!

Midweek non-conference games can sometimes trip up good teams - just ask Florida's top ranked baseball team. But that certainly wasn't the case for the Gators' No. 6 ranked softball team, as they came out swinging and made quick work of the No. 21 ranked Florida State Seminoles Wednesday night in Tallahassee. Florida State had won ten of their previous 11 games and nearly 1,200 hopeful fans turned out to see their beloved Seminoles try to upset their cross state rival, setting a new JoAnne Graf Field attendance record. But Florida would have none of it, as Junior Catcher Kelsey Horton went 3 for 4 with a homer and 3 RBIs to lead the Gators offense. Freshman Sami Fagan hit her first career home run, a three-run blast in the third, to help pace a six run inning which broke the game open.

Ace pitcher Hannah Rogers started for the Gators, earning the win and running her record to 18-2 on the season. Rogers scattered four hits and yielded one run to the Seminoles over six innings before the game was called early due to softball's "eight run rule." It was the Gators' 13th mercy rule victory this season.

Florida improved its record to 32-4 on the season and returns home this weekend for a three game series against the Ole Miss Rebels.

(via fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net)

Since the softball team was the only one of these three national title contenders to garner a mention in CAB this morning, I figured they could all use a little more love with a featured update.

The No. 2 ranked women's tennis team continues to obliterate their SEC opponents and became Alabama State Champions this weekend with a pair of 7-0 road drubbings against the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. On Friday, the Gators (especially sophomore Alexandra Cercone) actually had to break a sweat, in battling Auburn for over four hours before the last Tiger relented. The No. 3 doubles team of Cercone and Olivia Janowicz wore down their opponents in a tie breaker, (9-8 (7-3)) to sweep the doubles point. In the singles matches, five of the Gators handled their opponents in straight sets. But Cercone faced another marathon at no. 4 singles, needing a 10-6 tie-breaking set to finally defeat Auburn's Jackie Kasler. It was all worth it for Cercone though, as the wins marked her 99th and 100th combined singles and doubles victories, making her the 43rd member of the Gator Century Club.

On Sunday, the Gators faced the No. 13 Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa in a match to determine first place in the SEC. The Gators left little doubt concerning who rules the SEC roost, Florida again swept the doubles point (Cercone earned a well-deserved day off from doubles play and competed only in singles). The Gators' top five singles players each won their matches in straight sets before Janowicz used a third set to defeat the Tide's Taylor Lindsey to complete the 7-0 sweep.

The two victories run the Gators' record to 15-1 on the season (8-0 in the SEC) with three conferences matches remaining. The Gators return home next weekend to host Arkansas on Friday April 6, and LSU on Sunday, April 8. Florida is nearly invincible at home, having won 103 consecutive home matches. The Gators will finish the regular season in Columbia against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday, April 14.

Meanwhile, on the softball diamond, the No. 4 ranked Gators traveled to Athens, Georgia to face the No. 9 Bulldogs in a key SEC match-up with first place in the eastern division on the line. Friday's game was suspended in the 7th (and final) inning with the Gators down 3-0. When the game resumed Saturday, the Gators went down fighting, plating two runs before losing 3-2. Florida evened the series with a 4-2 victory Saturday afternoon behind five innings of solid relief work by freshman pitcher Lauren Haeger, earning her the win to run her record to 10-2 on the season. Michelle Moultrie and Cheyenne Coyle each went 2 for 3 for the Florida in game two. The Gators took the series by earning a 6-3 win on Sunday, the fifth straight SEC series win for the orange and blue. After a quick one game trip to Tallahassee on Wednesday to face FSU, the Gators return home for a three game tilt against Ole Miss next weekend.

Finally, the No. 4 ranked Florida lacrosse team ran its record to 12-2 with its eighth straight win, a 20-11 victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Gators' ALC home opener on Sunday. Freshman Shannon Gilroy led the Gators with five goals, while junior Ashley Bruns added four more. The win marked the 200th career victory for Head Coach Amanda O'Leary, only the 12th coach in NCAA history to reach 200 division I wins in women's lacrosse. Florida next takes its 2-0 conference mark to Baltimore to face ALC conference foe and No. 17 ranked Johns Hopkins on Saturday, April 7.

Even though many of us are still grieving over the basketball loss Saturday, the rest of the Florida athletic department moved on with its spring schedule. The Gators softball team put the finishing touches on a three game sweep of Arkansas this weekend in Fayetteville with a 5-0 Sunday shutout (the Gators downed the Razorbacks 6-0 on Friday and 3-2 on Saturday). Hannah Rogers picked up the Sunday win for the visiting Gators with five scoreless innings of relief to run her record to 16-1 on the season.

Center fielder Michelle Moultrie went 2 for 3 with a homer and scored three times for Florida (Moultrie was 8 for 11 on the weekend for a .727 batting average). This was the fifth straight sweep of the Razorbacks by the orange and blue. Following a Wednesday night game at home against USF, the Gators will travel to Athens next weekend for a three game tilt against the No, 11 ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

Meanwhile the No. 2 women's tennis team continued to roll with a 6-1 victory over the No. 19 Ole Miss Rebels Sunday in Gainesville. The win was the 103rd consecutive home victory for the Gators and their 31st straight regular season SEC win. The Gators swept the doubles matches and won all but the No. 5 singles match, where Sofie Oyen fell to the Rebels' Abby Guthrie 7-5, 7-5. It was Oyen's first loss in fourteen singles matches. Florida next heads to the state of Alabama to face Auburn on Friday and Alabama on Sunday.

Finally, the No. 11 men's tennis team also earned a win Sunday by a score of 5-2 over No. 14 Ole Miss in Oxford. The win snapped a three-match losing streak for the Gators. Florida will also face Auburn and Alabama next weekend, but the men's team will host both matches at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville.

While the Florida basketball team was busy collapsing in their Elite Eight match up against Louisville, Rhonda Faehn's gymnastics team was doing the exact opposite. The Gators recovered from a slow start and stormed ahead of the rest of the conference to take home the 2012 SEC Gymnastics Championship Saturday afternoon at the Gwinnett Arena in Duluth, Georgia. Florida finished the meet with a score of 197.150, easily outdistancing Alabama's 196.775. Host Georgia finished third with 196.575.

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(Via skigator93 on Flickr)

This guy was singing and playing guitar on the Apres Ski deck at the Ritz-Carlton in Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, Colorado this afternoon. He gladly took my request to play "We Are the Boys" and several others joined in. He also inserted several jabs toward my UGA friends (two of whom were wearing UGA shirts) during his various songs.

As the 2012 hoops regular season comes to a close and the postseason looms, we have all become painfully aware of a large void of frontcourt players on the Gators team roster. Since Will Yeguete's foot snapped against Auburn, the Gators have gone 0-3 and the Gator Nation has gone from wildly optimistic about Florida's postseason prospects to downright pessimistic.

As we inspect the Gators current roster, we see six guards at 6'5" or shorter (in fact, all are 6'3" or shorter except for little-used sub Jacob Kurtz). We then have Casey Prather, an athletic "'tweener" at 6'6" and the injured Yeguete at 6'7". Finally, we see Walter Pitchford and Erik Murphy at 6'10", and Cody Larson and Patric Young at 6'9". Pitchford is obviously not ready, because he never plays, and Larson looks completely lost and overwhelmed whenever he's on the court. That leaves a hobbled Young and Murphy, who is practically a 6'10" shooting guard.

That tells us that Billy Donovan is going to have to depend on a lot of four guard sets for the postseason and just pray that his guards get hot from outside. So why can't Billy-D lure big men to play for the Gators? Because Florida is a guard haven where big men are de-emphasized, right? Because Florida is a terrible place for big men to develop their skills for the NBA?

Phooey, I say.

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The University of Florida always fields a strong slate of spring sports and this year is no exception. In fact, as of today, Florida's baseball, softball and gymnastics teams are all currently ranked No. 1 in the country. Meanwhile, men's track and field and women's tennis are both ranked No. 2. Which of these teams is most likely to bring Florida's next national championship trophy home to Gainesville?

Many think that Rhonda Faehn's gymnastics team is poised to take this year's title and earn the program's first-ever national championship.

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After highlighting the women's lacrosse team and describing why they could be Florida's next national championship team, we next focus on a women's team that is looking for a repeat: women's tennis. Coach Roland Thornvist's squad earned the 2011 national title following an epic championship match victory over Stanford at the Cardinal's own Taube Tennis Stadium, snapping Stanford's 184-match home winning streak that dated back to 1999. Then-sophomore Lauren Embree rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the third set of the deciding match to force a tie-breaker which she won 8-6 to clinch the Gators' victory and national title.

But that was last year. Can 2012 measure up?

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(Via www.ufgolfcourse.com)

Spring is in the air. Maybe that's not true in most parts of the country, but it is true at Florida, where our spring Gators teams are firing up their respective seasons. Spring is an exciting time for all of the many Gators athletic teams. Yes, football is over, and after National Signing Day, we only have the Orange and Blue Game to look forward to at Florida Field until the fall. But the spring season sports are the strongest at UF this and most years, and spring is when the Gators begin to climb the standings of the NACDA Learfield Sports Director’s Cup.

At the University of Florida, we measure success by championships. Florida teams have hoisted national championship trophies 26 times in addition to securing 221 NCAA individual national championships. During the 2010-11 school year, the men's indoor track and field and women’s tennis team earned national titles for the Gators. Which team is most likely to bring the next national title to UF? After the jump, read which team I predict will be the next to bring the ultimate glory to Gainesville.

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(Via Florida Lacrosse on Facebook.)

You have to assume England's national women's lacrosse team, currently ranked fourth in the world, was tired Thursday. Following their long flight to the states, it narrowly defeated Jacksonville University Wednesday night in a hard-fought match before heading to Gainesville to face the No. 5 Gators at Donald R. Dizney Stadium on Thursday. Still, Coach Amanda O'Leary has to be excited with her squad's 17-2 win, especially with the performance of the newest Gators team members. The No. 3-rated recruiting class from a year ago scored 12 of the Gators' 17 goals in the victory, led by Gabi Wiegand, a junior transfer from University of Richmond, who scored five goals and added two assists for Florida. Freshman Nicole Graziano contributed four goals for the orange and blue and All-American Kitty Cullen added three goals.

Junior goalkeeping duo Mikey Meagher and Cara Canington split time in goal, with each holding England to a single goal in 30 minutes of play. The Gators outshot England 32-13 for the match.

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The dream is over for the Florida volleyball team following a 3-1 loss (25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 25-20) at the hands of the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday night in Gainesville. Ironically, it was a Mary Wise recruit in orange and blue that dominated the match, only she was wearing the wrong shade of blue.

Illinois senior Colleen Ward was the No. 7 recruit in the nation according to prepvolleyball.com when coach Mary Wise signed her to play for the Gators in 2008. Coach Wise likely envisioned the hard hitting Naperville, Illinois native leading her team to NCAA Final Fours. Coach Wise was right that Ward was a talent, but she transferred to Illinois following her sophomore season in Gainesville.

Saturday night, Ward made herself at home in the O'Connell Center, leading Illinois with a season high 23 kills, four assists and 11 digs, while hitting at a .500 clip. The raucous home crowd did all they could to get behind the Gators, but there was simply no answer for Ward's seemingly endless kill shots.

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The Florida Gators placed fourth in the final Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings for the 2010-11 school year. The Directors' Cup (formerly known as the Sears Directors' Cup) is given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the school with the most successful athletic teams across all NCAA sports. Stanford won this year's award for the 17th straight year in the award's 18 year history (UNC won the award its first year).

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The Gators magical softball season came to an end Tuesday night as the Arizona State Sun Devils defeated the Gators 7-2 to win the National Championship. The Gators played the Sun Devils much tougher than they did in Monday's 14-4 loss, but just couldn't break through offensively against ASU freshman hurler Dallas Escobedo.

The Gators jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first thanks to Series Co-MVP Michelle Moultrie's leadoff double, a sacrifice bunt by Tiffany DeFelice and a sacrifice fly by Brittany Schutte. But the ASU bats came to life again in the second, as the Sun Devils plated three runs on three hits against Florida senior starter Stephanie Brombacher.

Arizona State added two more in the third to take a commanding 5-1 lead before extending the lead to 6-1 with a run in the fifth. ASU added an exclamation point in the sixth with a towering home run to left by Annie Lockwood to make it 7-1. The Gators scored a run in the seventh when DeFelice singled in Ensley Gammel to arrive at the final 7-2 score.

The Gators again had difficulty hitting Escobedo, who finishes the season with a 37-3 record, and pitched every inning of the WCWS tournament for the Sun Devils. Escobdeo (who shared Co-MVP honors with Moultrie) becomes the first freshman pitcher since 1990 to win a WCWS title for her team. The ASU championship is their second in the past four years.

Despite the loss, the Gators certainly left their mark on the WCWS this season. Moultrie tied WCWS records with 4 home runs and 13 hits. Senior Kelsey Bruder scored a tournament record 10 runs. Bruder, Schutte and Cheyenne Coyle all joined Moultrie in being named to the 2011 WCWS All-Tournament Team.

This year's team set 30 UF records and Florida’s five seniors, Bruder, DeFelice, Megan Bush, Brumbacher and Aja Paculba leave the program as the most successful class in Florida history, boasting a 238-33 (.878) overall record and a 94-13 (.878) record in SEC play. The Gators finish the season at 56-13 and earned a trip to the WCWS for an SEC-record fourth consecutive season.

The latest standings for the NACDA Learfield Sports Director's Cup (formerly Sears Director's Cup) have been released and Florida now stands in seventh place, up six spots from its No. 13 ranking at the end of the winter sports season. The Learfield Sports Director's Cup is awarded annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the schools with the most successful athletic teams across all NCAA sports.

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Just kidding. 

The Sun Devils slaughtered the Gators 14-4 in the first game of the best-of-three Championship Series by playing almost flawlessly in every facet of the game. ASU freshman pitcher Dallas Escobedo riddled the Gators with a steady diet of rise balls that the Gators could not lay off of - yielding only run on three hits trough the first six innings.

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The Florida softball team faced a tall order on Sunday. Coming out of the loser's bracket, the Gators needed to defeat SEC rival Alabama twice to advance to the WCWS Championship Series. They would have to face Alabama pitcher Kelsi Dunne, who had not allowed a run in her first two WCWS games. The Gators were up to the task. 

Really, really up to the task.

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Florida's softball team defeated the California Golden Bears on elimination Saturday, 5-2, and will face Alabama on Sunday, needing to beat the Crimson Tide twice to move on to the Championship Series at the Women's College World Series.

Early on, the Gators looked to be in trouble again, falling behind Cal 2-0 in the top of the first inning and having to face yet another All American pitcher in Cal sophomore Jolene Henderson. However, after the initial frame, the Gators' defense buckled down to shut out Cal the rest of the way.

It took a few innings for Florida's bats to awaken, but they broke through in the bottom of the third with a little two-out magic ignited by Florida's "Big Three." Kelsey Bruder and Brittany Schutte hit back-to-back singles, before Megan Bush walked to load the bases. Freshman Cheyenne Coyle followed with an infield single to score Bruder, and a Cal throwing error on the play also plated Schutte. Aja Paculba kept the rally going with an RBI single to center before a strikeout ended the inning with the Gators up 3-2. 

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The Florida softball express was finally derailed Friday night in a heartbreaking 6-5 loss to the No. 1 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. Arizona State jumped out to a 4-0 lead over the first three innings due in part to a shaky pitching start by senior Stephanie Brombacher (who was chased with none out in the second inning) and some shakier Gator defense. A 4-0 lead in the WCWS is the equivalent to a four touchdown lead in football, especially when facing ASU's first team All-American pitcher Dallas Escobedo. But this Gators team was not going to go quietly.

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Florida's softball team entered the Women's College World Series on a roll, and kept the momentum going with a 6-2 victory over the Missouri Tigers Thursday night. Junior leadoff hitter Michelle Moultrie went 2 for 3, singling and scoring in the first inning to put the Gators out in front. Moultrie then extended the Gators lead to 3-0 with her third home run of the season to straight away center to lead off the third inning. Senior Megan Bush added a towering 2-run homer to left later in the third inning to put the game out of reach 5-0.

Missouri cut the lead to 5-2 in the sixth inning on a two-run double to left center field by Lisa Simmons, just out of reach of a diving Michelle Moultrie. The Tigers would come no closer though, as the Gators added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by sophomore Ensley Gammel.

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The No. 3-ranked Florida softball team appears to be peaking at the perfect time. The Gators swept the Pac-10's No. 11-ranked Oregon Ducks this past weekend to advance to the Women's College World Series for an SEC record fourth consecutive year. Florida won Friday's opener 9-1 behind a pair of two-run homers by sophomore Brittany Schutte, who also scored the ninth run to end the game in the fifth inning under the NCAA run rule.

Amidst Friday's barrage, the Gators also made quite a dent in the SEC record book:

Schutte’s two home runs Friday tied the 2011 squad for the Florida and SEC single-season home runs record at 109, a mark also achieved by the 2010 Gator team. Junior Michelle Moultrie (Jacksonville, Fla.) stole her 27th base of the season, tying her with senior Aja Paculba’s (Wildomar, Fla.) single-season record, 27 stolen bases in 2009. In addition to senior Megan Bush’s (Anaheim Hills, Calif.) SEC record 64 career home runs, the team also holds the SEC single season RBI record with 427. Schuttenow ranks second on the squad in homers this season, with 19, just one shy of Bush’s UF single-season record 20, while Moultrie has tallied 27 of 30 stolen bases for the Orange and Blue in 2011.

Senior pitcher Stephanie Brombacher improved to 19-1 on the season by going three innings and allowing one run. Freshman Hannah Rogers came on to finish off the Ducks by throwing two shutout innings and notching three strikeouts. 

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Now that, my friends, is how you win a national championship.

Florida's women's tennis team edged the Stanford Cardinal 4-3 Tuesday in Palo Alto in an epic match between the nation's top two women's tennis teams. After handily taking the doubles point, Florida found itself backed into a corner after Stanford captured the first three singles points at the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 slots. But the Gators roared back to life.

Despite dropping their first sets, freshmen Alex Cercone and Olivia Janowicz both battled back to win their matches. Cercone won her No. 5 singles match 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; while Janowicz took the No. 6 singles point 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, to even the score at 3. 

As the match extended beyond the four-hour mark, all eyes turned to Court #2, where Florida's Lauren Embree battled Stanford's Mallory Burdette for the deciding point and a national championship. Embree went down 0-4 in the third set before storming back with five straight games of her own. Fittingly, the three-set marathon went into a tie breaker as Embree couldn't put away her opponent in two championship point attempts. So the stage was set as the No. 1-ranked Gators (seeded No. 2 in the NCAA Tournament) tried to steal one away from the No. 2 ranked Cardinal (seeded No. 1 in the NCAA Tournament) and end Stanford's staggering 184-match home winning streak dating back to February 1999.

Burdette jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the tiebreaker, before Embree stormed back to take a 4-2 advantage. Burdette fought off two more championship points to knot the tiebreaker at 6-6. Embree then took a 7-6 lead, and, on championship point, watched Burdette's forehand shot sail over the baseline, giving Embree the No. 2 singles win — 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (6) — and the Gators their fifth national title in women's tennis.

Yeah, the Gators win titles. And they do it in style.

Florida's women's tennis team blanked the UCLA Bruins 4-0 in Monday evening's semifinal match, setting up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 National Championship showdown with the Stanford Cardinal. While the score may not be an indication, it was another grueling match for the Gators. Florida earned the double point, behind a 8-6 win at No. 2 by sophomore Lauren Embree and freshman Sofie Oyen, and a 8-4 win by the No. 3 team of junior Joanna Mather and sophomore Caroline Hitimana.

Embree then earned the first singles point with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 3. Sophomore Allie Will added a point with her 7-6, 6-2 win at No. 1, and Alex Cercone finished off the Bruins with a 7-5, 6-3 victory at No. 5. Oyen, Mather and freshman Olive Janowicz were all battling in their third sets when the match was clinched, showing just how easily this match could have swung the other way.

The No. 2 Gators will need to be at their best Tuesday if they hope to knock off the top ranked Cardinal and earn the national title. The Gators are 30-1 on the season, with their lone setback coming at the hands of Stanford 4-2 in the ITA National Indoor Finals way back in February. The Cardinal is 28-0 on the season, owns a 47 match winning streak as well as a 184 match home winning streak. The last home match Stanford lost was Feb. 27, 1999. Most of the Gators (who are laden with freshmen and sophomores) were about 8 years old the last time Stanford lost a home match. While Florida has no seniors on its roster, Stanford is led by its three seniors playing in their last team match. The Cardinal leads the all-time series against the Gators 16-11, and has dominated the Gators 9-2 in championship matches, including last season's 4-3 heartbreaker in the title match. Did I mention that Stanford even has a promotional video?? 

Tuesday's match starts at 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific) in Palo Alto.