In the regular-season finale with the Southeastern Conference Championship on the line, the Florida women’s soccer team dominated South Carolina, 3-0.
Two games later in the SEC Tournament the following week, South Carolina got its revenge with a 1-0 victory.
Coach Becky Burleigh’s Gators (15-5-2) head into their NCAA Tournament opener Friday at 5 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio, hoping they have learned lessons from both of those matches. As the regional No. 3 seed, Florida takes on Illinois State (12-6-1) in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at tournament host Ohio State (14-3-2), which meets Oregon State (12-7-1) at 7:30 p.m. The winners return Sunday for a second-round match at 1 p.m.
Florida had everything to gain in the first game against South Carolina two Fridays ago. They were dominant and loose throughout while earning the SEC championship. But in the second match, the Gators went down 1-0 in the first 10 minutes and never recovered.
When asked Tuesday what her team needed to work on heading into the tournament, Burleigh didn’t hesitate with her reply.
“Composure,” she said. “Just offensive composure. We had a lot of chances, but in the end it comes down to execution, and execution is being able to do what you do under pressure.”
During the first 30 minutes of the tournament game, Florida was unable to match the intensity of a South Carolina team bent on revenge. In the next 30 minutes, Florida took the game to the Gamecocks but could not score.
In the final 30 minutes, both Burleigh and her players felt they lost their composure. As the Gators watched the minutes tick off the clock, they rushed through their offensive options and couldn’t do what mattered most.
“Offensively,” Florida freshman McKenzie Barney said, “we didn’t get the ball in the back of the net.”
The intensity, Barney said, was the issue. Knowing they had won the SEC title and had an NCAA bid awaiting them, Florida did not play like a team with nothing to lose. The Gators played like a team with nothing to win.
And they didn’t.
“When we played LSU and South Carolina, we knew that there was a ton on the line,” Barney said. “We wanted that SEC Championship so bad. I think that’s going to come into play with this NCAA Tournament. This is when it really matters.”
Now, every opponent is hungry. There are no more second chances for any teams in the tournament. Win and play on. Lose and go home.
For senior Angela Napolitano, the trip to Columbus is a chance to play in front of many familiar friends and family members. She is from Cincinnati, just about an 90-minute drive down the interstate.
“What the younger girls need to know is that every team we play is desperate to get a win,” Napolitano said. “One little slip is the end of our season. Now if we lose, there is nothing else to look forward to. That’s pretty much it.”
Napolitano doesn’t want her last game with the Gators to be a loss.
“It’s hard because I’m a senior,” she said. “It’s hard not to think about that being the last time playing. We just have to remember that if we go out and do what we want to do and play how we want to play, the results should take care of themselves.”
Although Burleigh and her Florida staff do some significant scouting – she mentioned Illinois State’s 6-foot-2 forward Rachel Bostik as a primary threat – they try to focus on what their own team can do. They’re confident that if the Gators play their game, they can beat any team in the country.
Burleigh wants her team to drop some of its self-imposed pressure but knows it’s difficult.
“You don’t come to Florida if you don’t have high expectations,” Burleigh said. “Hopefully we were just saving up those goals for the NCAA tournament.”
NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
FIRST ROUND
Thursday’s games
At Stanford, Calif.
Brigham Young 2, UC-Santa Barbara 0
(1) Stanford 2, Northern Arizona 0
Friday’s games
At Santa Clara, Calif.
Michigan State (11-4-4) vs. (4) Santa Clara (13-6-1), 6 p.m.
Oklahoma State (15-7-0) vs. Southern California (12-6-2), 8:30 p.m.
At Madison, Wis.
Milwaukee (12-5-3) vs. (3) UCF (16-4-1), 6 p.m.
Arizona State (9-7-3) vs. Wisconsin (9-5-5), 8:30 p.m.
At Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Harvard (9-6-1) vs. (2) Boston College (15-3-2), 4 p.m.
Boston University (14-5-2) vs. Connecticut (10-7-2), 7 p.m.
At Portland, Ore.
Mississippi (13-5-2) vs. Washington (11-5-4), 7 p.m.
Denver (17-5-1) vs. (2) Portland (18-1-0), 10 p.m.
At Dayton, Ohio
Murray State (11-8-2) vs. (3) Virginia Tech (14-7-0), 4 p.m.
Marquette (15-5-2) vs. Dayton (16-0-5), 8 p.m.
At State College, Pa.
St. John’s (13-6-1) vs. Virginia (9-5-5), 5 p.m.
Colgate (11-6-3) vs. (4) Penn State (12-5-2), 7:30 p.m.
At Los Angeles, Calif.
Boise State (13-6-4) vs. (1) UCLA (17-2-1), 8:30 p.m.
San Diego (12-6-2) vs. San Diego State (14-3-5), 11 p.m.
At Chapel Hill, N.C.
High Point (7-14-2) vs. (1) North Carolina (17-3-1), 5 p.m.
North Carolina-Wilmington (13-7-1) vs. Georgia (14-5-1), 7:30 p.m.
At College Park, Md.
Monmouth (15-4-1) vs. (4) Maryland (12-5-2), 5 p.m.
Villanova (11-5-5) vs. Washington State (13-5-2), 8 p.m.
At Winston-Salem, N.C.
Loyola, Md. (15-4-3) vs. West Virginia (9-6-6), 3 p.m.
Kennesaw State (11-6-0) vs. (3) Wake Forest (13-5-2), 5:30 p.m.
At Columbia, S.C.
Davidson (12-9-1) vs. (2) South Carolina (17-3-2), 4:30 p.m.
Duke (8-8-4) vs. Rutgers (13-3-4), 7 p.m.
At South Bend, Ind.
Central Michigan (16-3-3) vs. Purdue (12-5-3), 5 p.m.
IUPUI (17-4-0) vs. (2) Notre Dame (17-3-1), 7:30 p.m.
At Columbus, Ohio
Illinois State (12-6-1) vs. (3) Florida (15-5-2), 5 p.m.
Oregon State (12-7-1) vs. Ohio State (14-3-2), 7:30 p.m.
At Baton Rouge, La.
Memphis (16-6-0) vs. Texas A&M (14-6-2), 5 p.m.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff (11-6-3) vs. (4) Louisiana State (14-4-4), 8 p.m.
At Tallahassee, Fla.
Southeastern Louisiana (13-4-2) vs. (1) Florida State (16-4-1), 4:30 p.m.
Auburn (10-8-3) vs. California (10-8-1), 7 p.m.
SECOND ROUND
Saturday’s game
Brigham Young (18-3-2) vs. Stanford (21-0-0) at Stanford, Calif., 4 p.m.
Sunday’s games
Boston University-Connecticut winner vs. Harvard-Boston College winner at Chestnut Hill, Mass., 1 p.m.
Marquette-Dayton winner vs. Murray State-Virginia Tech winner at Dayton, Ohio, 1 p.m.
Virginia-St. John’s, N.Y. winner vs. Penn State-Colgate winner, 1 p.m.
North Carolina-High Point winner vs. UNC Wilmington-Georgia winner, 1 p.m.
Washington State-Villanova winner vs. Monmouth-Maryland winner at College Park, Md., 1 p.m.
Loyola, Md.-West Virginia winner vs. Wake Forest-Kennesaw State winner at Winston-Salem, N.C., 1 p.m.
Rutgers-Duke winner vs. Davidson-South Carolina winner at Columbia, S.C., 1 p.m.
Notre Dame-IUPUI winner vs. Central Michigan-Purdue winner at South Bend, Ind., 1 p.m.
Florida-Illinois State winner vs. Ohio State-Oregon State winner at Columbus, Ohio, 1 p.m.
Auburn-California winner vs. Southeastern Louisiana-Florida State winner, 1 p.m.
Arkansas Pine Bluff-Louisiana State winner vs. Memphis-Texas A&M winner at Baton Rouge, La., 2 p.m.
UCF-Milwaukee winner vs. Arizona State-Wisconsin winner at Madison, Wis., 2 p.m.
Portland-Denver winner vs. Washington-Mississippi winner, 3 p.m.
San Diego-San Diego State winner vs. Boise State-UCLA winner, 4 p.m.
Oklahoma State-Southern California winner vs. Michigan State-Santa Clara winner at Santa Clara, Calif., 7 p.m.