Gators Suffer First Loss

Boxscore

The No. 6 University of Florida soccer team (3-1-0, 0-0 SEC) lost 2-1 in double overtime at Indiana (4-0, 0-0 Big Ten) Friday afternoon at the Armstrong Stadium.

Both teams came into the match undefeated and the Hoosiers hadn’t given up a goal in the 2009 campaign.

The first goal of the match came off an IU free kick in the 58^th minute. Chloe McKay took the 35-yard kick and sent the ball into the box where Devon Beach headed it in from 10 yards for her second goal of the season.

The match was tied in the 62^nd minute off an IU own goal. Florida’s Angela Napolitano centered the ball from deep in the Hoosier half. IU defender Kerri Krawczak tried to clear the ball, but it went back toward the IU goal. Hoosier goalkeeper Lindsay Campbell tried to catch the ball, but it slipped through her fingers and into the goal. The score ended Campbell’s scoreless streak, which started in the 2008 season, at 562:17 minutes.

In the 67^th minute, a bouncing ball was loose in the box. Florida’s Lindsay Thompson and Campbell both were moving at full speed when they collided in the box. The collision left Campbell down on the field and she was replaced in goal by junior Lauren Hollandsworth

The match was the first overtime contest of the season for either team. The only shot credited to either team in overtime was the game-winner by IU’s Leigh Anne Cummings. She was led by a pass from Beach and Cumming’s sharp right shot from 15 yards was the golden goal in the 115^th minute. It was the first overtime loss for the Gators since losing 1-0 to Illinois in 2005 NCAA opening round action.

Connecting passes wasn’t happening consistently for the Gators and UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh pointed to that as the team’s main problem on Friday.

“This was a game where we never got on track. We were never in rhythm. Our game is about completing passes and possession and we were never able to do that consistently,” Burleigh said. “We need to find a way to win when we are not connecting passes. It wasn’t just one person – we just weren’t in rhythm. Our game depends on rhythm and we struggled with that.

This was the first match that Gator senior Ashlee Elliott hadn’t appeared in since early in 2007 – a stretch of 45 consecutive appearances for UF, including 43 starts. Elliott tore her left anterior cruciate ligament in the Aug. 30 Florida-USF match and will miss the remainder of the 2009 season.

“Having Ashlee helps from a leadership standpoint and from a depth standpoint because she is a presence that other teams had to deal with. But that (not having Elliott) isn’t why we lost the game,” Burleigh said. “We lost the game because we couldn’t connect passes. When you give the ball away, bad things happen.”

Next up, Florida continues its Midwest road trip with a match versus No. 9 UCLA (1-1-1, 0-0 Pac 10) on Sunday, Sept. 6 in Champaign, Ill. Match time is set for noon at the Illinois Track and Soccer Stadium. Sunday’s match can be heard live on WRUF AM 850 with Adam Schick covering the action.