Four different players scored goals and junior Katie Fraine earned the shutout as the No. 14 Florida soccer team fashioned a 4-0 Southeastern Conference victory Sunday afternoon over Auburn on Senior Day at James G. Pressly Stadium.
Senior Angela Napolitano opened the scoring for the Gators (10-4-1, 4-1-1 SEC East) at 19:35, and then Florida poured in three goals late in the second period on goals by freshman Erika Tymrak (76:48), senior Lauren Hyde (83:43) and redshirt freshman McKenzie Barney (85:59). Tymrak also assisted on the goals by Napolitano and Barney.
The Gators outshot Auburn (5-6-3, 2-4 SEC) 16-4, with seven of the Florida shots testing Auburn keeper Amy Howard, who made three saves. The Tigers got only one shot at Fraine, a redshirt junior from Titusville, as Florida dominated all over the field of play.
“It’s awesome that some of the seniors scored today. I had a feeling that Lauren was going to finish the set piece and for Angela to get a goal, that’s great,” Florida head coach Becky Burleigh said. “Senior Day is a really big tradition here. It’s a big deal for the players to play hard for the seniors and I thought that the rest of the team did a good job doing that.”
Burleigh said her team was focused on playing better than it did last weekend in Mississippi where they earned a 1-1 double-overtime tie with Mississippi State Friday and lost 3-2 in two overtimes at Mississippi on Sunday.
“I think the biggest thing is that we wanted to rebound from last weekend,” Burleigh said. “We felt that last weekend wasn’t a good representation of our team and our team really made a big emphasis in practice this week of trying to get back on track and they did a really good job of that.”
Florida travels to Tennessee (7-5-2, 3-2-1 SEC) Friday at 7 p.m. with the match televised by Sun Sports. The Gators then swing by Georgia Sunday at 3 before returning home to play host to Louisiana State on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.