Florida soccer continued its unbeaten start to the season with two more matches this past week. Although the Gators experienced a minor hiccup, the program remains firmly inside the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 and will look to use the results as motivation moving forward.
With another week of action ahead, Florida will have an opportunity to bounce back, return to the win column, and continue building momentum early in the season.
Here’s a look at the latest Florida soccer weekly update, including how the Gators fared in their two matches, where they stand in the national rankings, and what’s ahead for the program.
Florida dominates Jacksonville, settles for draw at FAU
This past week, the Orange and Blue competed in two contests: Jacksonville and Florida Atlantic University. First, they took on JU
at home and handled them convincingly. Substitute Lena Bailey led the team in goals with two, followed by Montelene Dymond, Zoe Main, Kaite Johnston, and Lori Watanabe, each contributing one goal as the Gators defeated Jacksonville 6-0.
Though they didn't lose their winning streak, it ended in a 1-1 tie on the road against FAU. UF was the much more aggressive team in the tie, but the Owls were locked down on defense, allowing only one goal on 18 shot attempts from the Gators and also recording 10 saves in the match to UF's 4.
Head coach Nick Zimmerman credited FAU's goalie Ashley Small for her performance against his program.
“A lot of credit to FAU. They worked extremely hard and made it very difficult. Their goalkeeper had a career-high 10 saves and came up big for them." Coach Zimmerman said.
Florida was also very undisciplined late in the contest, giving up three offsides in the second half of play.
United Soccer Coaches Poll Week 3
- Ranking: 21
- Previous: 20
Florida soccer remains in the coaches' poll for the second consecutive week; however, the program does drop one slot from No. 20 to No. 21, mostly due to their tie against FAU. This week, the Gators received 32 total votes and no first-place votes.
- Stanford University
- Duke University
- Vanderbilt University
- Michigan State University
- Wake Forest University
- University of Alabama
- West Virginia University
- Ohio State University
- University of North Carolina
- University of Tennessee
- University of Washington
- University of Virginia
- University of Central Florida
- Brigham Young University
- Florida State University
- University of Wisconsin
- Texas State University
- UCLA
- TCU
- University of South Carolina
- University of Florida
- Baylor University
- University of Memphis
- University of Colorado
- University of Georgia
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida soccer continues strong start to season
