Forward Cassidy Lindley needed just one touch. And forward Madison Alexander played her a perfect ball to the right side of the 18, and Lindley got a step on Vanderbilt’s backline.
She didn’t need a favorable position either, as she ripped a shot at an awful angle way to the right side of the 18. Even still, she curled it past goalkeeper Lauren Demarchi into the left side of the net.
That goal put Florida up 1-0 in its match against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday. Boasting a four-game winning streak, the Gators traveled about 580 miles to Music City with an opportunity to beat the No. 15 team in the nation. And UF left victorious, as Lindley’s goal was the only one of the entire match, sending the Gators back home with five wins in a row, and a 3-0 SEC start.
“(Alexander) played it through, and I just thought, ‘shoot it,’ because I knew no one would be there as our other forward was super wide,” Lindley said. “So I just hit it.”
Florida’s defense dominated the first 20 minutes of action. The ball was in its half for most of that time, but only got into the 6-yard box once. Then, the 20th minute presented the first real chance for the Gators.
Forward Deanne Rose, fresh off a game-winning goal against Missouri, took the ball from the left wing and cut all the way across to the right of the 18-yard box. Then, the Toronto native had a clean shot on goal against Demarchi. Rose hooked her shot left and missed the best chance UF had until the goal later on from Lindley.
“It wasn’t our best as there were some opportunities we didn’t finish,” Lindley said. “But we kept the lead and did a good job of keeping our heads high throughout.”
All first half, the Gators backline did an excellent job containing the Commodores’ star forward Haley Hopkins. Vandy’s best scoring threat never put together anything threatening on that side of the 90 minutes. Most importantly, Hopkins, along with typically-threatening midfielder Maddie Elwell, were cut off from dangerous ares.
Defenders Kit Loferski, Julia Lester and Georgia Eaton-Collins shut the Commodores down early before they developed into anything significant. With the exception of a few set pieces, the ball rarely entered into UF’s 18.
Twelve minutes into the second half, UF midfielder Parker Roberts took it down the left side and played a pretty airball to fellow midfielder Tess Sapone. She had a prime opportunity for a shot but barely missed the net, as the ball hit the right post and harmlessly rolled out of play.
The rest of the second half was full of semi-close chances and then one extremely close chance for the Commodores with 30 seconds remaining. A cross found the head of Hopkins inside the six and goalkeeper Susi Espinoza reacted just before the ball reached the goal line to deflect it off her knee out of the box. It was the only legitimate one-on-one save Espinoza had to make all game, and it was perhaps the most impressive save of her career.
Coach Becky Burleigh credits her team’s persistence for holding on to the slim lead.
“We were tough today,” she said. “Still think we can manage the games better but in terms of our effort and physicality, I thought we did a really good job.”
The victory was UF’s first time beating a ranked opponent since No. 16 South Florida on Aug. 25 and the first time beating a top-15 opponent all season. More importantly, a team that once dropped four in a row has now collected five in a row, three of those in the SEC.
”It is tough to come here, play a noon game against a really talented Vandy team,” Burleigh said. “So for us to come out with the shutout and the win is huge.”
Follow Graham Marsh on Twitter @GrahamMarshUF. Contact him at gmarsh@alligator.org.
Gators forward Cassidy Lindley scored Florida’s one and only goal Sunday against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee. It was Lindley’s third goal of the season, the third-most on Florida’s roster behind Vanessa Kara (6) and Deanne Rose (4).
