Florida Wins at Georgia

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No. 11 Florida Soccer Wins 1-0 at No. 23 Georgia

Box score

A header goal by sophomore Tahnai Annis was all the No. 11 University of Florida soccer team (11-4-2, 5-1-2 SEC) would need Sunday. The Gators defeated No. 23 Georgia (12-3-1, 5-3 SEC) 1-0 Sunday afternoon in front of a season-high UGA Soccer Stadium crowd of 2,023.

The only goal of the match came when Annis headed in Lindsay Thompson’s cross at the far post corner from six yards. It was Annis’ second goal of the weekend and the first assist of 2009 for Thompson.

“We got the ball in transition from Lauren (Hyde). The ball was kind of in the middle of the pitch and McKenzie (Barney) slid to get a ball out wide to Lindsay. I knew she was going to take it out of the corner so I tried to get in the box for the cross. Everyone else made their runs near post so I just made sure I had far post. I was unmarked and I had a really good look at goal,” Annis said. “I haven’t scored on a header in quite some time. It was such a relief when I did today.”

UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh said the Gator defense did what was needed Sunday and she liked the connection by Thompson and Annis to score the game-winning goal.

“Our defense held strong to limit their chances and take away the ones they did have,” Burleigh said. “I thought it was a terrific ball by Lindsay and a great header by Tahnai – it was a good finish.”

The UF half of the field saw the majority of the action in the second half, but that wasn’t unexpected, Burleigh said. That end of the field showed the effects of the heavy rains the Athens area has received this fall.

“We knew we were going to play in our half for much of the second half just because of the circumstances. You can’t play anything out of that half. You just have to hit it as hard as you can and hope for the best. We were definitely not going to take any chances to play it out of the back,” Burleigh said. “I was really proud of our team to be able to get the win in this situation. That’s not our style of play but it was effective.”

The Bulldogs outshot the Gators 21-10 Sunday, but some of the day’s most dangerous chances came from Florida.

In the 14th minute, Thompson crossed the ball into the box. Her presence drew the attention of UGA goalkeeper Michelle Betos, leaving the far post open for a shot by Annis who was making a run through the box. But the UGA defenders blocked her shot.

Sophomore Erika Tymrak turned in UF’s next two best opportunities of the opening half. She had a diving header in the 19th minute that was wide of the near post and another header three minutes later that was saved at the post by Betos.

Georgia had their best opportunity of the opening half when three touches in the box by the Bulldogs led to a shot by UGA scoring leader Carrie Patterson. Katie Fraine made the diving save at the near post corner.

Freshman Brooke Thigpen took advantage of UGA’s trouble clearing the ball in the 61^st minute, but her shot hit the post.

The Bulldogs had their opportunities Sunday. In the 62^nd minute, UGA’s Ashley Miller was unmarked as she brought the ball into the UF box. The UF defenders recovered to put pressure on her shot which was wide of the near post.

UGA’s Alex Hooker took a shot in the 69^th minute that hit the post. Within the minute, Mariah Krase took a shot which forced Fraine to hit the ground to make the save. Fraine match her collegiate-high for saves in a match with 10 on Sunday. She also turned in 10 saves at Mississippi State earlier this season. Georgia’s Betos had three saves Sunday.

Both teams played hard Sunday, as Georgia entered the match third in the SEC standings, followed by Florida. Both teams knew a loss would make any hopes of making up ground on SEC leaders LSU and South Carolina extremely hard with only three matches remaining in the league season.

“I thought it was a really hard-fought game on both sides. Both teams wanted it really bad,” Annis said. “It wasn’t the prettiest game by any means. We could have done a lot more things to help ourselves, but it is what we needed. We needed a win on the road and we needed to win a game out of pure hard work and that’s what we did.”

The Gators return home to play host to No. 16 LSU (10-3-3, 6-1-1 SEC) on Thursday, Oct. 22. Match time is set for 7 p.m. (ET) at the James G. Pressly Stadium. LSU defeated Mississippi State 4-0 Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge, La. The Tigers shares the SEC lead with South Carolina at 19 points, while Florida is third with 17. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a tie in the league standings.

Thursday is Florida’s first cancer awareness match and the Gators will wear pink uniforms. The first 1,000 fans receive pink t-shirts, compliments of SUN Sports.

The match can be heard live with Adam Schick and Matthew Stubbington calling the action on AM 850 WRUF or via simulcast on Gainesville/Ocala Cox Cable channel 946 and www.GatorZone.com.