The University of Cincinnati lacrosse team, playing in its first postseason in its 12th year history, walked away with hardware as the Bearcats were the runners-up at the inaugural American Athletic Conference Tournament after falling to #18 Florida, 15-9, Saturday at the Sheakley Athletic Center. The Bearcats, who played their closest game in their series with the Gators, dropped to 12-7 overall on the year while the Gators improved to 13-6 and earned the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament next week. // QUICK NOTES • Cincinnati's record dropped to 12-7 on the year while Florida improved to 13-6 • Despite the loss, the Bearcats received a runner-up trophy, the program's first hardware earned • The loss snapped UC's 10-game home winning streak, placing the Bearcats at 10-2 at home on the year • As it stands, the 12 wins, 10 home wins, 8 overall wins in a row in the season, 10 in a row at home and 4 conference wins are all single-season records the Bearcats recorded in 2019, their most successful run in the program's 12-year history • The Bearcats are 0-6 all-time against the Gators, however, today's game marked the most goals UC has scored in the series (previously was six twice, including last week in Gainesville) and the closest margin (was 12 goals in a 17-5 home loss in 2016) • UF earned the AAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament with the Bearcats needing an at-large selection to make the field • Four players earned spots on the all-tournament team, including Alyssa Adams, Monica Borzillo, Morgan Dukes and Giuliana Durso • Seven different players scored in the game for the Bearcats with both Kylie Nause and Sam Mlkvy each scoring twice • Borzillo's three points brought her to 108 on the season, the second-most in the NCAA behind Navy's Kelly Larkin (112) • Durso recorded seven saves, including five in the first half, to bring her career total to 306, only the third time a UC goalie has recorded 300+ in a career, while also becoming the third to record 140+ saves in two or more seasons in a career at UC • Dukes, known for her tough defense, scored her first career goal today on just her second career shot • Adams finished the tournament with five points on five goals, tied for the second-most points on the team this weekend (Borzillo, 7) // HOW IT HAPPENED The Bearcats came out strong and scored the first goal of the game as Nause drew a free-position shot and scored to make it 1-0. From there, however, the Gators pieced together a five-goal run with five different players scoring to take a 5-1 lead with 23:16 showing on the clock. UC responded with a three-goal run of its own as Gianna Napoletano (from Borzillo), Amanda Donovan (from Jayde Sains) and Sam Mlkvy (from Donovan) each scored to make it 5-4 with 15:02 left. But, the Gators responded with three of their own to raise their lead to 8-4 before UC grabbed the last goal of the half, a score from Adams (from Borzillo), to make it 8-5 at the half. In the second half, UF began to pull away as it scored the first two of the half (up 10-5) before UC responded with Nause scoring her second. The Gators, however, went on another five-goal run to make it 15-6 with 5:28 remaining. The Bearcats tried to claw back into it and scored the final three goals of the game, including Dukes' first career goal, another from Mlkvy and one from Borzillo, but it was too little, too late. // ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM Four individuals earned the program's first all-tournament honors as Adams, Borzillo, Dukes and Durso each garnered an award. Borzillo led the team with seven points on four goals and three assists over the two games while Adams scored five goals, including four in Thursday's win over Temple, to tie for the second-most points on the team this weekend. Dukes led the team with 10 ground balls over the two games and was one of three individuals to cause three turnovers while also scoring her first career goal. Durso played solid in goal in both games as she made 15 saves and averaged allowing 12 goals per game and saving 38.5% of the shots she faced. // MORE FROM MLKVY Mlkvy's day saw her score twice and assist on two others for four points, the highest total in all three categories for the Bearcats. The junior midfielder was not done there, however, as she also led the team in shots (six), shots on goal (five) and tied for free-position goals scored (one). She added two ground balls, three draw controls and one caused turnover to her total as well. // BORZILLO ON POINT(S) With one goal and two assists, Borzillo added three points to her season total, bringing that total to 108, the second-most in the NCAA. Kelly Larkin of Navy still leads the nation with 112 points while only Alyssa Parrella of Hofstra sits just behind Borzillo with 105 and plays in her conference tournament final Sunday. As it stands, Borzillo will finish among the Top 3 in points recorded in the regular season and conference tournament weekend this year. With her assists, she recorded at least one for the 20th game in a row, doubling her previous record of 10 while making it 34 games in a row she has tallied at least one point, also a school record. // BOSS NAUSE Nause concluded the tournament with five goals, including two more today, to bring her season total to 41 goals, the second-most by any freshman in program history and the fifth-highest total in single-season history. The top rookie scorer in the league, Nause tallied at least one goal in 14 games in a row (still active), which is the second-longest all-time. // DUKES GETS HER FIRST Dukes had a strong tournament as well that saw her record 10 ground balls and cause three turnovers while helping the defense limit two strong offenses to 24 goals combined. Additionally, she scored her first career goal today as she raced into the offensive zone and went straight to the cage, fired low and scored on just her second career shot. // STRONG BACKING Durso tallied seven saves on the day and caused one turnover, giving her 15 saves for the tournament. Overall, Durso has recorded 306 career saves, which is the third-most in program history, while her 141 saves this season makes her the third UC goalie with two or more seasons with at least 140 saves in a career. // NEXT UP The Bearcats will now have to wait until Sunday at 8 p.m. when the 2019 NCAA Tournament bracket is released to see whether or not they will receive an at-large berth into the national event or if today's game was the finale of a monumental 2019 campaign.