A solid victory and a capper to an undefeated home slate usually leaves a team chipper.
Not the No. 12 Gators.
Florida (14-2-2, 8-1-1 Southeastern Conference) defeated Arkansas (5-10, 2-6-2 SEC) 3-1 in the final regular-season home match, its 15th consecutive victory against the Razorbacks.
Although the Gators possessed the dominant record, their play Sunday afternoon was far from overpowering. Florida labored to score goals despite dominating time of possession and forcing Arkansas to chase the ball.
“It was a tough game to play because Arkansas was giving us a lot of time, and unfortunately we were taking it,” coach Becky Burleigh said. “We needed to push the pace a little more. We were a bit unlucky a couple of times. Maybe if some of those go in it feels a little less frustrating.”
Florida, which finished the 2010 home schedule 9-0 with a 31-6 goal aggregate, was again plagued by its failure to connect on the final pass. While the Gators controlled the ball nearly the entire game, they out-shot the Razorbacks just 12-9.
The Gators took an early lead (15th minute) off a great corner kick from Tahnai Annis. The in-swinging ball eluded four maroon shirts in the box before bouncing right to Holly King, who headed the ball in for her first goal of the season.
“It feels great [to finally score a goal],” King said. “I’m always so close to getting one but never actually get it in, so it was good to finally get one.”
In the second half, the Gators looked to come out charging. Minutes in, Erika Tymrak took the reins as she carved the entire Razorbacks defense and nearly scored a goal. Tymrak’s blast hit the crossbar, but the attack appeared to be a sign of things to come for Florida.
However, about sixty seconds later, a lull in play allowed Arkansas to tie the game as the Gators defense fell asleep and got stretched too wide.
Razorback Ally Atkins made a nice diagonal run from the right sideline, and received a great slip pass, finishing with a tough shot near post.
Determined not to lose to a team merely playing for pride, the Gators didn’t panic and took the lead for good 10 minutes later.
In the 63rd minute, Annis just missed a diving header on a cross from the right sideline. But the ball trickled to the back of the box, where Taylor Travis was positioned. Travis flicked the ball back to wide-open teammate Sarah Chapman, who drilled a low liner inside the right post. Five minutes (68th minute) later, Florida scored again on a nice team play that saw five players touch the ball before it went into the back of the net.
McKenzie Barney scored the goal, her 10th of the season, off another assist by Travis.
“We went into halftime thinking it is unacceptable we’re up just 1-0,” Barney said. “It just started clicking more in the second half. We let down for 10 minutes and they took advantage of it. We can’t do that ever, so hopefully we learned our lesson from that.”
