While this could almost be the exact title of a football article written after the second Florida-Georgia game this week, we’re not talking football.
We’re talking Florida Gators soccer and Florida’s 14th Southeastern Conference regular season title. And all of those titles, along with their national title in 1998, have been won with Head Coach Becky Burleigh leading the Gators. That’s 14 SEC titles in 21 seasons. That’s one impressive track record.
Ever since she was hired as the inaugural head coach of the soccer program, Coach Burleigh has seen and mentored some of the top talent in college soccer. The first name that often comes to mind is Abby Wambach, along with a plethora of other talented players.
Despite this, though, Coach Burleigh stated that the 2015 squad “has been by far one of the most resilient teams I’ve ever coached,” after the Gators 3-0 victory over Georgia in the regular season finale. She continued, “we’ve been in situations where we’ve been down in games and come back. Two or three weeks ago, we didn’t know we would be in this position to have a shot to win the SEC regular season title but they just kept fighting back and fighting back.”
For roughly a thousand lucky Gators fans, they need only recollect a week ago to find a time where they were down in a game and their SEC title hopes were in the balance. For those fortunate enough to attend that damp Thursday night game, those Gator fans will remember that Florida fell behind 1-0 early to the then 17th ranked Gamecocks. From then on, Florida mirrored South Carolina’s every move, tied the game 1-1, and sent it into double overtime before Liz Slattery hit a sensational golden goal as time expired.
While not particularly ancient history, their heart in that game- the same heart the Gators have shown all season- was crucial. Without that game winning goal, they would not have won enough games to win the regular season title outright. Instead, Florida would have reached a tie with Missouri in the conference.
And although the Gators would have earned more points against common opponents to give Florida the tie-breaker- despite not actually playing Missouri- it sure is nice to just win it unequivocally. Fortunately for Florida, Missouri also tied Texas A&M late Thursday night, giving the Gators the edge they needed to stand alone atop the SEC as the regular season ended.
As a result, the sixth ranked Gators are now the No. 1 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament. Speaking of rankings, it’s worth noting that Florida was picked to win the SEC in the preseason coaches vote. Rankings- and preseason ones at that- take guff in any sport for feeling a little too “flavor of the week” for fans likings, but in this instance, the coaches were spot on.
The Gators have shown all season that they are not just a flash in the pan as they lead the Southeastern Conference in scoring and have shut out four teams this season- two of which were the final two games. Florida’s Savannah Jordan has also proven that she is not to be trifled with as she came into the Georgia game as the league’s leading scorer with 17 goals. And all she did during the game, was score the only two goals of the first half, giving the Gators a solid 2-0 lead heading into the season’s final half. The Gators’ Pamela Begic scored the last goal on a penalty kick to give the Gators the 3-0 victory and Jordan left the game with 19 points- remaining the leading scorer in the SEC.
This 14th SEC regular season title is also the 225th title achieved by the Gators athletics program. 225! That’s not a typo. That absolutely gaudy number places Florida at the top of the SEC for league titles, shows that the University of Florida is adept at a variety of sports, and shows how truly great it is to be a Gator.
Extra Points:
The Gators (14-3-1, 8-2-1 SEC) thoroughly dominated the Bulldogs (5-11-1, 4-7 SEC) in the season finale in Athens recording three times as many shots (18-6) as Georgia. Savannah Jordan’s two goals against Georgia gives her five multi-goal matches on the season.
This was the third season where Florida has begun league play with a loss (0-2 in 2007 and 0-1 in 2012) and went on to win the SEC title.