TAMPA, Fla. – The accomplishments have been many in two seasons of USF women’s lacrosse. Beginning Thursday afternoon in Nashville, the Bulls will attempt to add yet another gold star to their brief timeline when they open the American Conference tournament against Temple at Nissan Stadium.
Play gets underway between the No. 1 seed Bulls (11-4/6-0 American) and No. 4 Owls (12-4/3-3) at 5:30 ET. It will be the first of two semifinal matchups in the four-team conference tourney. The winner advances to Saturday’s championship game (1:00 ET) against the victor between No. 3 James Madison (11-6/5-1) and No. 4 East Carolina (8-8/3-3), a matchup that follows the Bulls and Owls. All three games will be available on ESPN+.
The Bulls won the American’s regular season conference title outright when they defeated Vanderbilt in Nashville last Saturday, 12-9, on the strength of six goals by Sofia Chepenik. The redshirt junior matched the program record for goals in a game, her third such performance.
Elise Grissett also has a six-goal game to her credit, which came in this season’s opener against visiting Niagara.
READ: USF Women’s Lacrosse Cleans Up With 3 Major Awards, Places 6th On All-Conference Teams
“To have an undefeated conference regular season shows a lot of growth and a lot of resilience, which we had to show at times,” said coach Mindy McCord, who arrived at USF in 2022 and built a program that had a very successful (13-5/4-2) inaugural season of 2025. “We were able to manage a lot of situations at times and I am very proud of them for that.”
The hope, of course, is that the second trip to the Music City in as many weeks provides even more excitement. One thing is for certain and that is the Bulls will be prepared.
“Their preparation is elite,” said McCord, who feels her team exhibited significant growth in the chemistry department this season. “Because of the way they prepare, they have a standard in place that has helped them be successful.”
The Bulls opened conference play this season by defeating the Owls in Philly, 11-10, on the strength of six fourth-quarter goals. Trailing 10-9, Grissett net the tying goal with 4:02 remaining, and put home the game-winner with 2:42 left.
“They are a senior-heavy team with good leadership,” said McCord of Bonnie Rosen’s team, which made it to the second round of the NCAA tourney in 2021. “They are very well coached and play strong defensively. It is going to be a great game of lacrosse.”
In last year’s conference tourney, which was hosted by Old Dominion, the Bulls defeated East Carolina, 14-12, to advance to the championship game. The Bulls fell to James Madison, 18-9.
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