Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In the first half alone, her team had nearly four times the shots — and some really good scoring chances — as Sunday night's opponent, yet when Becky Burleigh took her eighth-ranked Gators to the locker room for intermission they were tied with Syracuse at a goal each. 

At that point, it would have been natural to chalk up the events of the day to the events of two days earlier, when UF stunned top-ranked Stanford 3-2 in an emotionally charged game that represented the Gators' first win over the perennial power in program history. The home team, however, was well aware of the built-in pitfalls. 

"After that Stanford game, we knew we had to reset and regroup," senior Gabby Seiler said. 

As it turned out, sophomore midfielder Parker Roberts, the transfer from Kansas, took a splendid centering pass from junior Briana Solis and beat Orange keeper Courtney Brosnan in the 57th minute for what turned out to be the difference in UF's 2-1 victory at Dizney Stadium and the first 4-0 record for the Gators since the 2010 season. 

The end result wasn't necessarily about heeding the coaches' warnings of a "Stanford hangover." Ultimately, as it related to Sunday's game, this was about needing to play better and seizing opportunity when it arose. 

Call it a good teaching moment. 

In a win, no less. 

"We had a lot of opportunities early that we did not put away, and you have to credit Syracuse for that," said Burleigh, the only coach in program history, after going 4-0 for the sixth time in her 23 seasons. "We've got to be a little bit sharper because I think that really changes the game if we put those opportunities away. We let them hang around, let them get a goal, and now you're in it. But we knew this was going to be a challenging game because of Friday and that turnaround; the emotion of Friday. The good news? We came out with the win." 
 
The Gators outshot the Orange 17-6, a drastic flipflop from when the Cardinal had a 14-8 advantage in shots about 50 hours earlier. UF scored first goal on a Seiler penalty kick — giving her a goal in each of the four games to date — barely seven minutes in. Syracuse (2-1-1) tied things up about 16 minutes later on a nice combo pass-and-shoot sequence from Alana O'Neill to forward Sydney Brackett. 

Roberts' go-ahead goal came with just over 33 minutes remaining. With barely 10 minutes left, UF sophomore keeper Susi Espinoza made a sensational diving save to preserve the lead, and the Gators finished out the match by doing what they did most of the night: possessing the ball and playing keep-away (mostly in the Orange end) with an efficient two-touch brand of soccer. 

They stayed with it, they persevered and they managed to overcome whatever indulgence of prosperity that may have hovered around since Friday. And they did so against a foe that plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference and last week upset 14th-ranked Connecticut. 

The Orange likely came in thinking they were getting the feeling-good Gators at the perfect time. 

"That was what the coaches talked about — the emotional roller coaster — and we were kind of on an emotional high," Roberts said. "They were like, 'Don't get an emotional hangover from that game!' It was such a game of high ups and high downs. They said we had to stay mentally tough and stay in the game because we knew Syracuse was going to come at us. We just had to kind of put that game in the past. That was a great win [Friday], and we celebrated it, but it was time to move on." 

Now, it's time to move out. 

UF heads west to play Washington and Portland in the Husky/Nike Invitational next weekend in Seattle. They'll take with them loftier expectations — both internal and external, what with that big Stanford win now on everyone's radar — and probably a top-five ranking after five of the nation's top six teams lost since Thursday. 

Obviously, the season has just begun. 

But there's already a bunch of good things to build on. 

"The resilience of Friday night was huge [and] the ability to grind out a game like this against an opponent like Syracuse that plays in the ACC and is used to playing some really good teams was good," Burleigh said. "So, there's definitely a lot of positives to take from our first two weeks. But I think we still have a long way to grow as a team. As coaches, we're excited about that."