The wait is over.

On its seventh trip to the NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Championship tournament, Le Moyne brought home the coveted prize, beating Florida Southern 16-11 on a rainy day at the University of Tampa to win the school's first national championship in women's lacrosse.

Le Moyne had been knocked out in the semifinal round each of the previous three seasons, and each time it was its conference nemesis, Adelphi, inflicting the damage.

"I'm just so happy for my team," said Le Moyne head coach Kathy Taylor. "I'm happy for the seniors that worked hard for four years and have elevated this program. I'm happy for the girls who played here before and helped build it. This is a tipping point in our program this year — to get on the other side of Adelphi. They stay focused enough to win a championship and not feel satisfied."

Adelphi handed Le Moyne its only loss of this season, an 11-8 regular season defeat on April 25, but the Dolphins gained revenge with a 14-10 win in the Northeast-10 Conference championship game on May 6.

The two teams met again just six days later in the NCAA quarterfinals, and Le Moyne overcame a two-goal deficit in the second half to post a 14-11 victory over Adelphi to head back to the semifinals for the fourth straight year.

The Dolphins showed no hangover effect in the semifinals on Friday, racing past Regis 18-1 to reach the championship game for the first time ever.

That set up a date with a team fully accustomed to the championship stage.

Florida Southern won the NCAA title in 2016 and played in the 2017 championship game against Adelphi.

Early on, the Moccasins seemed ready to exploit that advantage.

After an early goal by Le Moyne's Bryanna Fazio, Florida Southern scored four straight goals and then took a 5-2 lead on Emily Santoli's unassisted tally with 17:20 left in the first half.

Taylor had called a timeout with the Dolphins trailing 3-1.

"We just didn't look like ourselves," Taylor said. "We were making uncharacteristic turnovers. Our defense wasn't shored up like I thought it would be. We had some nerves, and we struggled with the draw. I don't know if we mastered it, but we got better. (The timeout) was an opportunity to remind them how prepared they were for this game, and to execute our game plan."

The Dolphins eventually responded.

Sidney Hall scored at the 15:54 mark and fed Fazio for another goal just 30 seconds later. Erin McMullen tied the score 5-5 at the 11:25 mark and less than a minute later, Fazio scored again.

The goals kept coming. Fazio netted her fourth of the game with 9:36 left in the half and then McMullen and Emily Altland scored goals just 12 seconds apart.

The run reached eight goals when Sidney Hall scored with 4:40 left in the half. Florida Southern's Meghan O'Brien scored with 34 seconds left in the half, but the damage had been done. Le Moyne took a 10-6 lead into the break.

The score remained that way more than 11 minutes into the second half. Florida Southern goalie Brittany Iamele, who came into the game late in the first half, made three early saves and Le Moyne hit two pipes before finally breaking through on Monica Sanna's goal with 18:50 left to play to give the Dolphins an 11-6 lead.

In the second half, Florida Southern twice strung together two-goal runs, but never got closer than four goals as Le Moyne kept the pressure on.

"We competed very, very hard," Taylor said. "We weren't perfect for sure, but we were able to pull away and respond to their run and limit it."

Fazio finished the game with six goals, an assist and five draw controls to earn Most Outstanding Player honors for the championship. Hall added four goals and two assists, McMullen had two goals and three assists and Hannah George was solid in goal once again, making 12 saves.

Le Moyne finished the season at 22-1, breaking last year's school record total of 19 victories while tying the NCAA Division II record for wins in a season set by Adelphi in 2014.

O'Brien led Florida Southern (21-2) with a four-goal, one-assist effort and Santoli and Dani Bursinger each scored twice. Alanna Zambetti and Iamele combined to make 12 saves.

The victory was especially sweet for Taylor, the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association president who took over the Le Moyne program prior to the 2015 season. She came to Le Moyne following a successful run at Cortland, but faced a similar hurdle with the Red Dragons. Taylor went 115-17 in six seasons at Cortland, but saw each of her last four seasons at the school end in the NCAA Division III semifinals.

"More than a sense of relief, it was a sense of fulfillment," said Taylor, who won a pair of New York state championships as a high school coach at Fayetteville-Manlius before entering the college coaching ranks. "That your team was capable of doing something and got it done. Our coaches were talking and we said it just really feels complete."

Taylor's family didn't have any doubt that Le Moyne would be there on the final day. Her two daughters came down on Friday and told her, "Mom, we bought tickets for the weekend." Her son had a work commitment on Friday and couldn't make it for the semifinal game, but told her not to worry and that he would be there for the championship game.

Taylor's cell phone blew up with congratulatory messages after the game, but before she could soak it all in, she had one more important piece of business - leading a graduation ceremony for her seniors.

Some 1,000-plus miles to the north, their classmates had received their degrees earlier in the day in Syracuse, N.Y. The seniors brought caps and gowns and had a ceremony in the hotel lobby following the championship win with Taylor and their parents speaking.

"It was very special," Taylor said, who was then left to make sure everything was lined up for the flight home tomorrow and think about the day she had just experienced. "It's not just another game. There's something that hits you after a big game. It feels surreal."