Florida Soccer’s SEC Tournament History
Gators soccer is in Pensacola to take part in its 29th SEC tournament appearance on Sunday. The Gators are seeded at No. 12 and take on the five seed Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Gators have a long history at the SEC tournament, winning 12 tournament titles, the most of any SEC school and all under coach Becky Burleigh’s long tenure. Their first title was won in 1996, only four years after the program’s inception.
The Gators’ First SEC Title
It was Nov. 9, 1996. “Friends” was airing its third season, “No Diggity” by Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre dethroned the “Macerana” to be the number one song in the U.S. and the Florida Gators soccer team won their first SEC tournament title. The Gators went 22-3 in the 1996 season, winning all 11 of their conference games. Their only losses of the season were dealt to them by then-No. 6 Texas A&M (Texas A&M did not join the SEC until July 1, 2012), Duke and, finally, then-No. 1 North Carolina in the postseason. In the tournament, the Gators beat Tennessee 3-0, then Auburn 6-1 and, lastly, Arkansas 3-2.
Florida was seeded at No. 9 going into the SEC final with Arkansas. The match was a battle, each team leading at one point in the game before an equalizer was netted. Arkansas’ Andie Hickman scored the only goal of the first half in the 23rd minute. The Gators came back early in the second half with a goal by Danielle Fotopoulos. The teams ended 1-1 in regulation and the game was sent to overtime.
The Gators struck first in overtime in the 99th minute of the game. They led until the 119th minute when Arkansas equalized to send the game into a sudden death period. The Gators’ Sarah Yohe ended the game by scoring a goal with only 10 seconds remaining on the clock.
On the 1996 squad were star players Danielle Fotopoulos and Heather Mitts. Fotopoulos was called up for the U.S. Women’s National team in 1996 and was a part of the Gators squad that won the 1998 NCAA tournament as well as the U.S. squad that won the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Mitts was called up for the U.S. Women’s National Team in 1999; she won three Olympic gold medals and finished second in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Florida’s Erin Baxter, Fotopoulos and Melanie Freeman were named as part of the SEC All-Tournament Team. Fotopoulos was also named SEC Player of the Year and tournament MVP for the 1996 season. She still holds the NCAA DI all-time record for most goals and points.
The 1996 SEC tournament win started a six year streak of the Gators winning the SEC tournament. The Gators took the trophy every year until 2002 when they lost to Tennessee in double overtime in the SEC tournament final.
The Wambach Years
Abby Wambach played all four years of her collegiate career for the Gators. Joining the team in 1998, Wambach won the SEC tournament with the Gators every single year that she played. Along with Wambach, Fotopoulos and Mitts were still key parts of the team until 1998 and 1999, respectively, and also boast an SEC championship for every year that they played for the Gators.
The first season with all three of the Gators’ international stars was in 1998, the same year of the Gators’ first national championship in soccer. The Gators went 26-1 in the 1998 season, posting another perfect conference stretch at 8-0. The Gators’ only loss of the season was a regular season overtime loss to then-No. 1 North Carolina.
In the 1998 SEC tournament, the Gators did not concede a single goal to their opponents. The Gators swept South Carolina in the first round 6-0 and defeated Kentucky 2-0 in the semifinal.
The Gators took on Vanderbilt in the 1998 SEC tournament final and won solidly at 2-0, sending them to the 1998 NCAA National Championship tournament. The 1998 team would go on to have a historic run in the NCAA tournament, breaking other teams’ record streaks as they raced towards the trophy. In their 1-0 win over the Santa Clara Broncos, the Gators ended Santa Clara’s 16 consecutive game shutout streak, they were the first team to score on the Broncos in over 1,438 minutes.
The Gators took on the North Carolina Tar Heels in the tournament championship. Their defeat of the Tar Heels not only secured revenge for the Gators’ only loss of the regular season but also broke the Tar Heels 70 game win streak and shut them out for the first time since their 1995 NCAA tournament semi-final against Notre Dame, 104 matches ago.
In the 1998 SEC tournament, Florida had four players named to the All-SEC Tournament team: MVP Erin Baxter, Keisha Bell, Fotopoulos and Wambach. Fotopoulos was named SEC Player of the Year for the second time, her first being back in 1996. It was the third consecutive year that SEC Player of the Year was a Florida Gator.
In 1999, the Gators finished their season 21-2 and, once again, went undefeated in the SEC at 9-0. The Gators only regular season loss came at the hands of the University of Virginia. The Gators won their 100th match on Oct. 31 of the 1999 season against Clemson and took home their fourth consecutive SEC title with a 3-0 win over Mississippi.
“I guess this win is a little more special for the seniors in the sense that they are the first class to go four-for-four. That is something we talked about in the beginning of the year,” Burleigh said after the 1999 SEC final. “This game could accomplish a lot of our goals – set a record for the seniors, win the SEC title and hopefully give us a shot at a top four seed for the NCAA Tournament.”
They would go on to lose in the second round of the NCAA tournament as the No. 3 seed in a stunning upset to the University of Hartford.
The turn of the century didn’t slow down the Gators’ domination in the SEC. The Gators cruised through the 2000 SEC tournament with a 4-1 win over Arkansas, 2-1 win over Kentucky and a 2-0 shutout win over rival Georgia in the final. Junior Abby Wambach won SEC tournament MVP, the fifth consecutive year that the honor was awarded to a Gator. The 2000 team would go on to lose in the second round of the NCAA tournament to in-state rival Florida State at home.
The final year of Abby Wambach’s Florida career was also the final year of the Gators SEC tournament title streak. The Gators went 17-3-1 in the 2001 regular season and 8-1 in the SEC. They soundly defeated Vanderbilt in a 4-0 shutout. Then they took on Kentucky for a 3-1 win in the semi-finals and trumped Auburn 2-1 in the finals, an Auburn own-goal giving the Gators the advantage. Abby Wambach was, once again, named SEC tournament MVP for her senior season with the Gators.
The Next Six
Florida would come back to win the SEC tournament in 2004 and then again in 2007 to top off the teams’ 2000s wins. In the 2010s, the Gators won the 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016 SEC tournaments.
The Gators were seeded at No. 4 in the 2016 SEC tournament, the last one they won. Florida advanced out of the first round off of penalty kicks, sinking eight to Kentucky’s seven. The team advanced past the second round after taking down No. 1 seeded South Carolina in a 1-0 shutout.
The Gators then once again found themselves face to face with Arkansas, seeded at No. 3 in the 2016 tournament, but the Gators came out victorious with a 2-1 overtime win. Senior Brooke Sharp scored the game winning goal with only 59 seconds left in overtime. Sharp also scored the game winner in Florida’s 2015 SEC tournament win against Texas A&M.
The 2016 Gators would advance to the third round of the NCAA tournament where they lost Auburn 3-1.
The End of Burleigh’s Era
The 2017 SEC tournament saw the Florida Gators beat Auburn in the first round but fall to Texas A&M 2-1 in overtime. The Gators were back in 2018 where they exited in the semifinals following a loss to Arkansas. In 2019, the Gators once again exited in the semifinals following another loss to Arkansas. In 2020, the Gators fell to Missouri in the quarterfinals.
Becky Burleigh retired in early 2021 after 26 seasons with the Gators and was replaced by Tony Amato for the 2021 season. In 2021, the Gators once again ended their tournament run in the quarterfinals, this time with a loss to Tennessee.
Samantha Bohon was named head coach ahead of the 2022 season. In 2022, the Florida Gators failed to qualify for the SEC Championship. It was the first time in its 27 years of existence that the Florida Gators soccer team did not qualify for the tournament. The team would continue to fail to qualify for the tournament until the 2025 season, Samanatha Bohon’s last with the Gators, where they entered at the No. 11 seed and exited with a first round loss to Kentucky.
The 2026 Florida Gators
Under Nick Zimmerman, Florida Gators soccer has seen a significant improvement compared to the previous four years. After beating the reigning national champion, and in-state rival, Florida State in August, the Gators displayed a system of intense offensive pressure and aggressive pressing to win the ball back on defense.
But a notable missing piece began to make itself known as a trend began to develop during the 2026 season: the Gators would hold most of the possession of the ball, and take shots than their opponents, but would be unable to convert those shots into tangible goals leading to more losses and ties than wins during the season. The Gators ended the 2026 regular season 6-6-5 (2-4-4 SEC) which, while an improvement from some of the more recent seasons, is not a good representation of the program’s historical caliber.
But these Gators never gave up. Despite struggling to finish in more games than they didn’t, the Gators defeated two top 5 opponents in stunning upsets, then-No. 3 Florida State and then-No. 5 Alabama. A feat only achieved by themselves this season.
In their second SEC tournament appearance since their three season drought, the Gators are seeded at No. 12. They will head to Pensacola to rematch the No. 5 seeded Arkansas Razorbacks, a team that beat them earlier this season with a goal scored in the last seven seconds.
Florida has met Arkansas in the SEC tournament eight times and holds a 5-2 record against the Razorbacks in SEC tournament play. The last time the teams met in the SEC tournament was 2019 when the Razorbacks sent the Gators home with a 3-1 win in the semifinals.
The Gators take on the Razorbacks in Pensacola for the first round of the 2026 SEC tournament at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on the SEC Network.
Category: Gators Soccer
