Gators to face ‘Bama in SEC semis

The Florida Gators soccer team (15-6, 7-4 SEC) faces off the Alabama Tide (10-7-3, 4-5-2 SEC) on Friday in Orange Beach, Ala., after their victory over the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday’s SEC Tournament opening.

Florida managed to finish two of the 16 total shots taken during the Georgia match, enough to gain the win and advance to the second semifinal round.

Alabama threw a shocking upset in their 1-0 victory over the No.1-seed South Carolina, the first time since 2002 that a number one seed has exited the tournament in the opening round.

“It was a good performance by our team,” Alabama head coach Todd Bramble said. “I thought in the first half, we were very good. I thought the goal was an outstanding goal by Molly (Atherton) and it was well deserved. When you’re playing against a team like South Carolina, they’re going to fight back in the second half and they made a great run to try to tie it up, but our defense was outstanding and our goalkeeper Justine [Bernier] was big-time tonight.”

Gator head coach Becky Burleigh had noted that their performance against Georgia wasn’t the “prettiest” but that they had good looks out there, in terms of finishing goals in the first half.

Florida is no stranger to grabbing the SEC Tournament winning title, winning nine out of the 16 total appearances made. However, with Alabama taking control on the field and kicking South Carolina out of their top seed spot, Florida will have to work extra hard finishing goals to compete with the Tide.

Florida will have to utilize their key scorers, like Erika Tymrak, Tahnai Annis, Annie Speese, and Havana Solaun, to slide past a strong Alabama defense and finish goals.

The Gators shut out Alabama in a 4-1 victory back on Oct. 9 during regular season play and still have the capability of finishing them come Friday, sticking to their style of play but needing to put more urgency on keeping the ball in the opposing half and finding the back of the net.

Match time is set for 8:30 PM and can be heard on WRUF SportsRadio 850 or on http://www.GatorZone.com with Adam Schick on match commentary.

Gator Country reporter Michelle Provenzano can be reached at michellemprovenzano@gmail.com. You can also follow her on twitter, @mmprovenzano.