Two weeks after taking the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title, Stanford lacrosse will travel to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the Florida Gators in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The trip to Gainesville will mark Cardinal’s second consecutive year in the NCAA Tournament and just its third appearance in history.

The two will match up for the first time ever, with the Gators starting a lacrosse program just one year ago. The Cardinal and Gators have five opponents in common this season, including Denver, Northwestern, Ohio State, Syracuse and Vanderbilt. The Cardinal (16-2, 6-0 MPSF) compiled a 3-2 record against those opponents, falling to Vanderbilt and losing a one-goal game to Northwestern.

Florida (15-3, 5-1 American Lacrosse Conference), which played several of those common opponents multiple times, grabbed a 6-1 record against those teams, losing only to Northwestern in the ALC Championship game.

Although Stanford has won seven consecutive MPSF titles, the Cardinal is 0-2 in the NCAA Tournament. Stanford lost to Northwestern in the 2006 tournament, and it fell to James Madison in 2010. Last year was the first time that the MPSF champion had a play-in game to the tournament, and Stanford matched up against Massachusetts to get a bid into NCAAs.

There’s a lot of pressure on the team this year going into the tournament–besides having the title up for grabs, the Cardinal’s success could help to prove that West Coast lacrosse is a force to be reckoned with.

“Florida is definitely going to be a challenging team, but we are more experienced and we are ready to make our mark in the NCAA Tournament and show that the West Coast knows how to play lacrosse,” said sophomore defender Elizabeth Adam.

Stanford’s first-round matchup is set for Saturday, May 14 in Gainesville. The winner will then face either Pennsylvania or Duke on May 21 or May 22.