Florida Soccer Takes on Missouri to Close the Regular Season

The Florida Gator soccer team will play its last regular season game Thursday night against the Missouri Tigers in Columbia, Missouri.

Florida is fresh off of celebrating Senior Day before last Sunday’s match against Mississippi State. The game was a great defensive battle that included fantastic saves from both goalkeepers. It was scoreless until Florida’s Meggie Dougherty Howard hit a corner that was headed away by a defender which went right to Mayra Pelayo who hit it into the upper corner of the goal. Florida won the match 1-0.

The Gators have now won their last two games bringing their record to 12-4 and 7-3 in SEC play. They are currently tied for third in the SEC with Arkansas. Missouri (11-5-1, 6-3-1 SEC) is only half a game back in fifth place.

Heading to the "show-me" state to take on Mizzou on Thursday night! pic.twitter.com/QWp5rPb5Ab

— Becky Burleigh (@UFGatorSoccer) October 26, 2016

This season, the Tigers are led by freshman and offensive threat Sarah Luebbert. She leads the team in points (24) and goals (10). At home, Missouri has only dropped one game and currently have a nine-game win streak. In their last match, they came back from a 2-0 deficit at halftime and scored four goals in the second half to beat Georgia 4-3. Florida Head Coach Becky Burleigh said that the Tigers pose an interesting threat against Florida.

Florida was projected to win the SEC this year after winning both the regular season and tournament titles last season. Although they weren’t able to perform as well this year, considering South Carolina has not lost a game all season, they have their eyes set on finishing the regular season with a win and taking what they’ve learned from both their wins and their losses to be successful in the SEC tournament next week. Senior Dougherty Howard said the team is focused on reaching the goals they have set for the postseason.

Thursday night, Florida will play Missouri at 9 p.m. The game can be seen on SEC Network. ESPN 95.3 FM Gainesville will have coverage starting at 8:50 p.m.