The Gators struggled to string together passes early and build up into the attack against the Wildcats, but a brilliant piece of work early in the 57th minute through the middle helped Florida (10-3, 3-1 SEC) break the ice against Kentucky (9-3, 2-2 SEC) en route to a 3-0 win.
Holly King won a ball near the midfield and quickly dropped off a pass to Havana Solaun. Solaun turned her head quickly up field and laced a pass to McKenzie Barney at the top of the arc.
Barney turned quickly and split two defenders, firing a shot low into the bottom left corner of the net to put Florida ahead 1-0.
“Holly King and Havana Solaun are two of the players on our team that have absolutely amazing vision,” Barney said. “It takes some amazing players and amazing vision to realize that their middle players can easily be split. Phenomenal ball, you can’t ask for a better ball. I had no one on me and she found the open man, and that’s how you get it done.”
The score broke a long run of unsuccessful build-ups for the Gators, who couldn’t seem to connect the last pass they needed to break through the Kentucky defense.
The Gators added a second goal from freshman Annie Speese in the 75th minute of the match.
Florida built up a nice attack in the box and sent numbers forward. Erika Tymrak got loose and rifled a shot from the right side of the box right onto the face of goal. Kentucky goalkeeper Kayla Price parried the shot, but it trickled to her right where Speese crashed in on it and finished over Price for the goal.
“[Erika] did a little bit of her magic and got a shot off and ripped it,” Speese said. “I was just there to follow up.”
As Florida continued to send numbers forward in the second half, the Kentucky defense began to crack. The Gators finished with eight shots in the second half and 10 in the game, winning six corner kicks in the process.
Speese picked up another goal, her fifth of the season, on a pass from Solaun with about four minutes remaining. Solaun dropped off a pass to the left side of the box for Speese, putting her one-on-one with the keeper.
The freshman struck the shot off the keeper and it trickled into the right side of the net to put Florida up 3-0. Barney was credited with the second assist on the goal.
“I looked up and I found [McKenzie], and she played a great ball to Havana,” Speese said. “I just continued my run and Havana played an awesome through ball.”
Florida’s passing was sloppy at times throughout the match, particularly early in the first half, when Florida gave Kentucky a number of attacking chances with turnovers from the back line to the midfield.
The Gators settled down a little after about the 15th minute of the match but couldn’t create much in the attack in the first half.
Florida finished the first half with just two shots, while giving up three to Kentucky.
“Maybe it was a tactical decision,” head coach Becky Burleigh said. “We started in a different system in the game, couldn’t get our rhythm. Changed the system and that helped a little bit.”
Barney nearly put Florida ahead in the first half when she took a brilliant pass from Tymrak into the left side of the box.
Before Barney was able to get a shot off a Kentucky defender pulled her down, but the referee decided to let it play without awarding a penalty kick.
“It’s difficult, it was a 50-50 and I tried to do what I could with it, got pulled down,” Barney said. “Unfortunate we didn’t get the call, but you can’t change the referee’s mind.”
Kentucky responded well after Florida drew first blood in the second, and the Wildcats had several nice chances to draw level.
Florida got its biggest scare of the game when Kentucky midfielder Kelsey Hunyadi rifled a shot from about 30 yards out from the right side of the goal.
The shot seemed to catch freshman goalkeeper Taylor Burke off guard, but Burke was able to react just quickly enough to punch the shot up into the crossbar, where it bounced straight up into the air for an easy catch.
“I got a little nervous, I knew I didn’t want to give up a corner,” Burke said. “So I tried to catch it, but luckily it came back to me.”
Kentucky drew numerous fouls throughout the game, picking up 16 against the Gators, including a late second-half yellow card on defender Kathryn Williamson.
After firing the shot off the crossbar, the Wildcats drew a couple questionable fouls just outside the Florida box, setting up a pair of free kicks in dangerous position.
Kentucky squandered both, hitting the first one from just outside the left corner of the 18 low into the Florida defense, while blasting a shot from about 24 yards out in the center of goal over the crossbar.
“What made the game difficult was so many stoppages of play,” Burleigh said. “It was just so choppy, especially for a team like us that relies on rhythm. That’s a challenge, and I thought our team handled that challenge pretty well because the whistle was blowing all the time and most of the time we weren’t sure what it was blowing for. That’s frustrating, but we managed to keep our composure through that.”
Burke played in her first game since giving up four goals against Tennessee in a 4-2 road loss in Knoxville, and Burleigh was pleased with her performance.
Florida racked up its fourth clean sheet in the past six games, and Burke picked up her fourth scoreless outing in her last five appearances.
“It was definitely a confidence-booster to come back after [Tennessee], get that out of our heads and just end on a positive note from this game,” Burke said.
The Gators will return to action next weekend when they finish up a four-game homestand by hosting Auburn on Friday and Alabama on Sunday.