The No. 10 Florida soccer team took care of business against California, eliminating the Golden Bears in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-1 win on Friday night in Gainesville.
As a team that has a tendency to concede a goal within a few minutes into a game, the Gators capitalized early when forward Savannah Jordan earned a penalty kick after getting fouled in the box three minutes into the contest.
Senior midfielder Annie Speese nailed the penalty kick with a left-footed strike past California keeper Emily Boyd to gain the early 1-0 advantage.
In the 13th minute, Jordan would send a well-timed through ball to Havana Solaun on a textbook counter attack. Solaun would chip the keeper to go up 2-0.
“We’ve been really emphasizing the first five minutes – just kind of going after it,” said Solaun. “That’s what we did today and it just really helps us settle down and play the way we want to play.”
California’s Samantha Witteman would score four minutes later off a rebound to go into halftime down 2-1. A second-half stalemate was broken in the 90th minute when Jordan notched her 18th goal of the year, going around the California keeper to seal the victory.
“We showed some great finesse,” said Florida head coach Becky Burleigh. “That second goal was a thing of beauty. And yet we showed some great grit too and that was really good to see.
On a chilly night at the Dizney Lacrosse Stadium, it was evident that both teams were not afraid to be physical and attack the ball. The Gators committed 14 fouls while California had 12 fouls of their own.
“(Cal) was determined to try and even the game up and I thought our team stepped up to that challenge, especially physically,” Burleigh added. “It did turn into a pretty physical match and our team likes to play but we also did not back down (from the physicality a bit).”
The Gators (16-4-1) will move onto the Sweet 16 where they will host Texas Tech (16-3-2) in a No.2 vs. No. 3 regional seed matchup on Sunday. The match is scheduled for 2 p.m at Dizney Stadium.
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