After eight freshmen joined the team last season, coach Becky Burleigh has only three new faces for the 2014 season.
“We kind of made a conservative effort to make our team a little bit smaller,” she said. “But we think we have a lot of quality in this class, and we’re expecting big things from the three of them.”
Two of Burleigh’s pickups — Los Gatos, Calif., native Jessie Holmes and Naperville, Ill., native Talise Romain — are both projected to see playing time as defenders.
Holmes, a hybrid defender/forward out of Los Gatos High, was a 2012-2013 All-Santa Clara Valley Athletic League first-team selection and helped her high school capture the De Anza division of the SCVAL Championship in February 2013.
“Jessie’s somebody who’s played an attacking role on some of her teams,” Burleigh said. “But we’re looking at her mostly as a defender, which is the spot we’d like to have a little more depth in.”
Romain, a four-star recruit according to TopDrawerSoccer.com, participated in a few of Florida’s camps in the past and caught Burleigh’s eye.
“She plays very similar to the way we play,” Burleigh said. “Her style of play and her ability to keep possession of the ball is important.”
Cassie Owens, a forward from Louisville (Colo.) Monarch High, is a versatile player who Burleigh believes will make an immediate impact.
“We think she can kind of play almost anywhere for us, besides goalkeeper,” Burleigh said. “She’s a forward by nature, and we expect that’s where she’ll start for us.”
With such a small class of incoming players, Burleigh expects some of the underclassmen who had minimal playing time last season to have more opportunities to contribute during Florida’s spring schedule.
The Gators’ offseason schedule, which starts with a home game against Tampa on Saturday, includes a match against the U-20 national team and contests against four teams that reached the quarterfinals of the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
“They get a lot of opportunities to get a lot of reps and our spring schedule is extremely aggressive,” Burleigh said. “So they’re going to get good reps against good competition and I’m pretty excited to see what that looks like.”
Follow Jordan McPherson on Twitter @J_McPherson1126
Becky Burleigh scans the field before Florida’s 3-0 win against Alabama on Sept. 20, 2013, at James G. Pressly Stadium. UF signed three players to its 2014 recruiting class.
