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<p>Meggie Dougherty Howard shoots the ball during Florida's 6-0 win over Alabama on Oct. 20, 2016, at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.</p>

Meggie Dougherty Howard shoots the ball during Florida's 6-0 win over Alabama on Oct. 20, 2016, at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

Eight seniors took the field on Sunday at Dizney Stadium for their final regular-season home game.

After four years, three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, two Southeastern Conference regular season titles and one SEC Tournament title, UF’s senior class celebrated one more win on Senior Day.

The No. 20 Gators (12-4, 7-3 SEC) defeated Mississippi State (6-11, 1-9 SEC) 1-0, and its senior class earned its 66th win, the fifth most among the country’s senior classes.

Due to another stifling defensive effort, Florida held Mississippi State to three shots in the first 45 minutes.

“Everyone wants to play a little extra hard for the seniors because they know the loyalty that we have for this group,” UF coach Becky Burleigh said.

“This has been a remarkable senior class for us and they still have so much more to give. But we wanted to kind of honor them today.”

One of them, senior forward Savannah Jordan, is one of the most accomplished Florida soccer players ever.

She's scored 78 career goals, the second most at Florida behind only Abby Wambach (96).

But she couldn't find the net on Sunday, and the Gators weren’t able to get on the board until the 81st minute, when they scored the eventual game-winning goal.

Senior Meggie Dougherty Howard’s corner kick sailed in front of the Bulldogs' box, where sophomore Mayra Pelayo fielded it and scored from 8 yards out.

“I just saw it coming,” Pelayo said.

“I knew it was going to go in the far post. I just whipped it in, and hopefully it went in, and it did.”

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This was Florida’s sixth shutout of the season, and the fifth in its last seven games.

“The past couple games have been trying to keep a shutout, so I was just trying to do my part,” UF goalkeeper Kaylan Marckese said.

“We have been focusing a lot on playing a full 90-minute game."

Florida will have a few days to recover before it travels to Columbia, Missouri, on Thursday for its last regular-season game of the season.

Then the team will travel to Orange Beach, Alabama, to try and defend their 2015 SEC Tournament Title.

The tournament will be played from Nov. 1-6.

“I think we have grown a lot since the beginning of the year, I think we have grown from each win, loss, whatever struggles we’ve had,” Jordan said.

“I am really proud of where we are and I think it is only good things going into next season and onto Orange Beach. So I am pretty excited to see what we do in the postseason.”

Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27.

Meggie Dougherty Howard shoots the ball during Florida's 6-0 win over Alabama on Oct. 20, 2016, at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

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