UF LAX: Florida Lacrosse Comes in at No. 5 in ILWomen Top 25 Media Poll

The Gators will take on eight teams ranked in the preseason top 25.

Gainesville, Fla. – Florida lacrosse has been ranked No. 5 in the ILWomen Preseason Top 25 Media Poll, announced Wednesday afternoon. This comes 19 days after the Gators came in at No. 9 in the USA Lacrosse Magazine Top 20 rankings.

Florida is coming off a historic 2024 season, where they went 20-3, setting a program record for wins. The Gators conquered their 11th Conference Tournament Championship (10th straight), 12th regular season title and reached their second NCAA Final Four in program history.

UF returns 18 players from the 2024 roster, including three USA Lacrosse Magazine Preseason All-American Honorable Mention selections in Theresa Bragg, Kaitlyn Davies and Elyse Finnelle. They return eight players who started at least one game last season (Bragg, Davies, Finnelle, Ashley Dyer, Celeste Forte, Georgia Hoey, Gianna Monaco and Ava Tighe) and have the second ranked defensive unit coming into 2025, according to ILWomen.

The Gators have brought in 11 freshmen, with Clark Hamilton (No. 21), Gabby Greene (No. 35) and Susan Radebaugh (No. 50) all ranked in the Top 50 Freshmen ILWomen Power 100 Rankings. UF corralled three players in the transfer portal, getting Jordan Basso (Gettysburg), Cali Bishop (Louisville) and Jenny Markey (Syracuse), good for the third ranked transfer portal class according to ILWomen.

The Orange and Blue are set to take on eight teams ranked in the preseason top 25, including four in the top 12 (No. 4 North Carolina, No. 10 Loyola, No. 11 Johns Hopkins and No. 12 Penn). Florida is one of two Big 12 teams ranked, along with No. 23 Colorado.

Florida opens up regular season play on Friday, Feb. 7 at No. 11 Johns Hopkins at 11 a.m. Below is a full list of the preseason top 25 rankings.

ILWomen Preseason Top 25 Media Poll
1. Boston College
2. Northwestern
3. Michigan
4. North Carolina*
5. Florida
6. Syracuse
7. Maryland
8. Yale
9. Virginia
10. Loyola*
11. Johns Hopkins*
12. Penn*
13. Notre Dame
14. Stony Brook
15. Denver
16. James Madison*
17. Princeton
18. Navy*
19. Penn State
20. Stanford
21. Clemson*
22. USC
23. Colorado*
24. Drexel
25. Duke