UF goalkeeper Elyse Finnelle anchors No. 9 Gators’ Elite Eight run
GAINESVILLE — Florida goalkeeper Elyse Finnelle sported a softball-shaped contusion on her left thigh and another ouchie on her left forearm.
Bruises can add up deflecting a 5-ounce rubber ball traveling 60 mph.
“Too many to count,” Finnelle said Tuesday with a smile.
Less apparent was the chip surely sitting on her shoulder.
Finnelle returns to her home state with something to prove as No. 9 UF (19-2) faces No. 4 Maryland (14-5) at noon Thursday during the NCAAs Elite Eight.
A 13-12 overtime road win Feb. 24 against the Terps began the Gators’ school-record 19-game winning streak, but also marked a career low point for Finnelle. With family and friends on hand, the native of Deale, located 45 minutes southeast of College Park, ended the game on the bench.
“I was very disappointed in myself that I kind of let my team down,” Finnelle recalled. “But I was also very proud of my team that they were able to adjust and to have enough trust in each other that they can do it.”
Finnelle’s faith in herself helped her to stay the course.
When Georgia Hoey injured a hip March 30 at Vanderbilt, Finnelle capitalized to reassert herself as a defensive linchpin.
“She is really a mentally tough kid, and she has always been like that ever since we started recruiting her,” coach Amanda O’Leary said. “That was one of the things that drew us to her.”
Finnelle credits her resilience to her blue-collar upbringing from a small town of 4,706 on the Chesapeake Bay, where fishing is a pastime and economic engine.
“I take pride in my town,” she said.
Lacrosse is another source of pride in the region. Sitting an hour north, Baltimore is one of the game’s hotbeds.
While Finnelle was a four-sport athlete 30 minutes south of the city at Southern High in Harwood, lacrosse was her destiny.
Sean Finnelle, who starred in community college, inspired his daughter’s passion. At Southern, coach Arvak Marshall honed Elyse Finnelle’s skills, including using brain drills to improve eye-hand coordination.
“We played card games, just different memory games I would say a lot of old people play. It sounds weird,” Finnelle said. “It’s your hands and your eyes that make your hands move. It’s all the neurons firing and everything that just connects together.”
Finnelle’s cat-quick reflexes are her advantage, along with countless hours of strength and flexibility training with UF assistant Tracy Zimmer.
“She pushes me out of my comfort zone like no other — and I love it,” Finnelle said.
Toughness is the final ingredient responsible for Finnelle earning AAC Goalkeeper of the Year.
During the Gators’ 17-8 NCAA-opening win May 10 against North Carolina, Finnelle tied her season-high with 14 saves despite absorbing a shot to the arm that made her head coach cringe.
“Her arm just blew up like a balloon,” O’Leary recalled. “I was like, Oh my gosh, can you do this? She’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s just another bruise.’
“I would have been like on the ground flailing and crying.”
But like Finnelle, O’Leary’s deep, talented squad hasn’t let anything slow it down, winning by an average of 12 goals during its streak.
“This team is very special,” Finnelle said. “In the last three years, we’ve never felt like this before. We’re all just locked in.”
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com