Florida soccer coach Becky Burleigh believes a challenging regular-season schedule gets a team ready for its postseason challenges.
But playing 10 teams that advanced to the 2008 NCAA Championship? Now that’s challenging.
“The competiveness of the SEC teams grows each year, which was shown last season with six SEC teams advancing to NCAA play,” Burleigh said. “This entire schedule is going to test this team, so we’ll need to be prepared for every match.”
The Gators, who went 11-0 in round-robin play on way to their ninth Southeastern Conference title and 19-4-1 overall, finished the 2008 season ranked 10th in the final National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll.
The season opens Friday, Aug. 21 when Florida visits Miami in Coral Gables. The Hurricanes qualified for the NCAA tournament for the second straight season but lost to UCF, 3-1, in their opening match.
Following the season opener, Florida opens its home season with matches against Florida International on Friday, Aug. 28 and South Florida on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Indiana will begin the month of September by travelling to Bloomington, Ind., to meet Indiana on Friday, Sept. 4.
By the end of September, Florida will have faced five tournament teams from a year ago, including Women’s College Cup semifinalist UCLA on Sunday, Sept. 6 in Champaign, Ill. The match will mark the 12th season in the program’s 15-year history that Florida has played a team from the Womens College Cup the previous season.
Following the match with the Bruins, the Gators return home to play six matches, beginning with three 2008 NCAA tournament teams. Duke, which reached the NCAA quarterfinals, visits Gainesville on Friday, Sept. 11. Colorado, another NCAA tournament team, follows two days later.
Then on Friday, Sept. 18, NCAA 2008 quarterfinalist Florida State comes to James G. Pressly Stadium and Eastern Kentucky follows on the 20th before Florida opens defense of its SEC championship with back-to-back home matches against Kentucky (Friday, Sept. 25) and Vanderbilt (Sunday, Sept. 27).
Five of Florida’s final six SEC matches also are against 2008 NCAA tournament teams: home matches against Auburn (Sunday, Oct. 11), Louisiana State (Thursday, Oct. 22) and South Carolina (Friday, Oct. 30) and road matches at Tennessee (Friday, Oct. 16) and Georgia (Sunday, Oct. 18).
The 2009 SEC Tournament once again will be played at Orange Beach, Ala., beginning Wednesday, Nov. 4 and ending Sunday, Nov. 8. The NCAA tournament field is announced Nov. 9 and first-round matches begin at campus sites on Friday, Nov. 13. The Women’s College Cup will be played Dec. 4 and 6 at the Aggie Soccer Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station.
2009 FLORIDA SOCCER SCHEDULE
Home matches, played at James G. Pressly Stadium, are in CAPS.
AUGUST
21 (Friday): Miami at Coral Gables; 28 (Friday): FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL; 30 (Sunday): SOUTH FLORIDA.
SEPTEMBER
4 (Friday): Indiana at Bloomington, Ind.; 6 (Sunday): UCLA at Champaign, Ill.; 11 (Friday): DUKE; 13 (Sunday): COLORADO; 18 (Friday): FLORIDA STATE; 20 (Sunday): EASTERN KENTUCKY; 25 (Friday): KENTUCKY (SEC); 27 (Sunday): VANDERBILT (SEC).
OCTOBER
2 (Friday): Mississippi State (SEC) at Starkville, Miss.; 4 (Sunday): Mississippi (SEC) at Oxford, Miss.; 9 (Friday): ALABAMA (SEC); 11 (Sunday): AUBURN (SEC); 16 (Friday): Tennessee (SEC) at Knoxville, Tenn.; 18 (Sunday): Georgia (SEC) at Athens, Ga.; 22 (Thursday): LOUISIANA STATE (SEC); 25 (Sunday): Arkansas (SEC) at Fayetteville, Ark.; 30 (Friday): SOUTH CAROLINA (SEC).
NOVEMBER
4-8 (Wednesday-Sunday): SEC Tournament at Orange Beach, Ala.; 9 (Monday): NCAA tournament field announced; 13 (Friday): NCAA first-round match, on campus; 15 (Sunday): NCAA second-round match, on campus; 20-22 (Friday-Sunday): NCAA third-round match, on campus; 27-29 (Friday-Sunday): NCAA quarterfinal match, on campus.
DECEMBER
4 (Friday): Women’s College Cup, semifinal, Aggie Soccer Stadium, College Station, Texas; 6 (Sunday): Women’s College Cup, championship, Aggie Soccer Stadium, College Station, Texas.