The No. 6 University of Florida soccer team (10-1-1, 4-0 SEC) claimed its 10th win of the season Sunday afternoon with a 3-0 victory over Mississippi (5-7-1, 1-3 SEC) at the James G. Pressly Stadium.
| Sunday’s SEC Scores | |||
| Away | Score | Home | Score |
| Mississippi State | 0 | No. 20 South Carolina | 7 |
| Auburn | 1 | LSU | 2 |
| Alabama | 2 | Arkansas | 1 |
| Vanderbilt | 0 | No. 17 Georgia | 1 |
| Kentucky | 1 | Tennessee | 0 |
The first goal of the match came off a Rebel miscue. Jazmyne Avant’s serve into the box looking for Tahnai Annis and McKenzie Barney was attempted to be cleared by UM defender Kendyl Mygatt. The misdirected ball went into the UM goal for the first own goal scored for the Gators since UF’s 2-1 2OT loss at Indiana on Sept. 4, 2009.
Florida’s second goal was the first of the season for senior Nicky Kit. Annis sent her corner kick to Kit, who was positioned just above the Rebel box. Kit’s left-footed shot from 20 yards scored at the near post at 73:46. The goal was the third of the left back’s career and first since 2008.
The Gators had taken 11 shots before Kit’s score. When the chance came, Kit said she was ready to take advantage of the opportunity.
”I was just getting tired of us not putting it away so I said, ‘What the heck’. I put my head down and kicked as hard as I could and I got lucky and it deflected,” Kit said.
With time winding down, it looked as if McKenzie Barney’s school-record streak of home appearance with a goal was going to end but she scored in the 90th minute to extend the record to nine. The Gators’ final goal started when Ashlee Elliott received a UM punt just past the midfield line. She sent the ball forward to Caroline Triglia who brought the ball down the center of the field. Triglia passed the ball through the right side of the box. Barney caught up to the ball and one-touched it in from five yards at 89:34.
Extending the streak didn’t enter Barney’s mind until post-match interviews.
“Just trying to capitalize on a great victory and really hammer it in,” Barney said.”It actually didn’t even go through my mind until now.”
Barney leads the SEC with nine goals scored this season.
UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh said the Mississippi formation was a test for the Gators.
“You know the first half I thought we were just getting a bit frustrated with the defense that Ole Miss was playing. They were trying to put a whole bunch of people behind the ball and we had to try to deal with that,” Burleigh said. “The second half I thought we really wore them down and kind of made them pay for putting all of those people behind the ball. Again just glad to get out with a shutout, 3-0, we’ll take it.”
Katie Fraine recorded two saves Sunday, including a stop at the near post of Mandy McCalla’s header shot off a UM corner kick in the 22nd minute. It was Fraine’s sixth shutout of the season and extends her school record of career solo shutouts to 23.
Next up, Florida travels to the state of Alabama to face a pair of Southeastern Conference Western Division rivals. The weekend begins with a Friday, Oct. 8 match at SEC Western Division leader Alabama (8-2-1, 3-0-1 SEC) and the match airs live on Fox Sports-Florida (Gainesville/Ocala Cox Cable channel 70 or 770) at 8 p.m. (ET). Then UF faces Auburn (8-4, 2-2 SEC) on Sunday, Oct. 10 in a match which airs live on ESPNU (Gainesville/Ocala Cox Cable channel 251) beginning at 3 p.m. (ET).
You can hear the action live on WRUF SportsRadio 850 or on Gainesville/Ocala Cox Cable channel 946 for the Alabama match. Both the Alabama and Auburn matches can be heard live on www.GatorZone.com.
| Scoring Summary: | 1st | 2nd | Final |
| Mississippi | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Florida | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Scoring: | |||||||
| UF: Own goal 20:06 | |||||||
| UF: Nicky Kit (Tahnai Annis) 73:46 | |||||||
| UF: McKenzie Barney (Caroline Triglia) 89:34 | |||||||
| | |||||||
| Goalkeepers: | |||||||
| | | Minutes | Saves | GA | |||
| UM | Sarah Story | 90:00 | 5 | 3 | |||
| Florida | Katie Fraine | 90:00 | 2 | 0 | |||
| | | | | | |||
| Statistical Summary: | UM | UF | |||||
| Shots | 5 | 18 | |||||
| Shots on goal | 2 | 8 | |||||
| Saves | 5 | 2 | |||||
| Corner Kicks | 2 | 7 | |||||
| Fouls | 4 | 7 | |||||
| Offside | 1 | 3 | |||||
