Florida Gators

The 2003 Southeastern Conference Tournament trophy was awarded to No. 18 Tennessee (15-4-2, 7-1-1 SEC) after it edged the No. 8 University of Florida soccer team (16-3-2, 6-2-1 SEC) 7-6 in penalty kicks. The two teams played to a 1-1 tie on a cool afternoon in front of an Orange Beach Sportsplex crowd of 1,736. When neither team could get the golden goal in one of the two overtime periods, the match moved to penalty kicks. It was the first time in the tournament's 11-year history that the championship match was extended to penalty kicks.

The overtime marked the fourth time in the two team's last five meetings that the match was extended to overtime. This was only the second time in the history of the Florida program that it was pushed to penalty kicks, with both matches coming in SEC Tournament play (1995 SEC first round, Auburn advanced 5-4 on penalty kicks). During the regular season, if the tie is not broken in one of the two 10-minute overtime periods, the match ends as a tie. If the tie is not broken by a sudden-victory goal in the championship portion of the season, the match is officially recorded as a tie, but penalty kicks are used to determine which team will advance.

The first six players for each team hit their penalty kicks. Tennessee's seventh player, Jenny Jeffers, hit her shot and UF's Katie Johnston's shot hit the crossbar and bounced out, giving the Lady Vols the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament field and their second consecutive SEC Tournament title. UT defeated the Gators 2-1 in double overtime for their first tournament crown in 2002.

"I thought it was a really hard fought game, pretty even game. Both teams had their chances. The score ending in a tie is pretty indicative of the way the game went," UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh said. "There is preparation involved in penalty kicks which showed because both our players and their players were pretty successful. The preparation was there. Katie hits the crossbar – it was very close. Of course, we would have liked to win it in penalty kicks, but once it gets to penalty kicks, it's kind of a crap shoot."

The two teams played a scoreless first half, with the Lady Vols outshooting the Gators 4-1. The Lady Vols most dangerous chance came in the 18^th minute when Lyndsey Patterson took a shot off of an UT corner kick. Florida junior Ashley Kellgren cleared the ball off the line with her head to save the sure Tennessee goal.

UF junior Stephanie Freeman, the 2003 SEC Player of the Year, hurt her left ankle in a three-way scramble for the ball with teammate Crystal Frimpong and UT's Kayla Lockaby. The Gators played a man down for less than a minute before bringing in junior Christine Johnson. Freeman did not return to play, but did take Florida's second penalty kick, successfully hitting her shot with her right foot. This is the second consecutive meeting with the Lady Vols that Freeman was forced to leave play due to injury. She dislocated some cartilage of her rib cage in the first half of Florida's 2-0 loss at Tennessee on Oct. 10.

"Of course it is unfortunate to lose one of your top players, but we really didn't even think about that for most of the game. We had another great player come in and take her spot," UF tri-captain Megan McMillan said. "We didn't let that hinder our performance so we just kept on playing and we knew that we were still able to play our game."

Florida looked for an early score to open the second half. Robin Fulton made an acrobatic save to keep the ball from going out of bounds, and then she played the ball to herself. She used her speed to move past her defender and bring the ball deep into UT territory. Fulton crossed the ball and found Johnson alone at the top of the box, but her shot went wide in the 48^th minute.

The Lady Vols scored at 57:50 when Keeley Dowling headed the ball off Ali Christoph's corner kick to Lyndsey Patterson. She hit the short shot to put UT up 1-0.

But Florida knotted the match at 74:48 when senior Dena Floyd buried the penalty kick to put the Gators on the board. The Gators were awarded the penalty kick when Melissa Amado was called for a foul in the box on Kellgren. Floyd has taken all of Florida's penalty kicks this season and has scored on all five attempts.

Florida placed four players on the SEC All-Tournament team – Freeman, McMillan, Frimpong and Fulton, who also picked up the SEC Tournament MVP award. Fulton turned in two goals and an assist for the Gators this weekend.

"It means a lot, especially because it is my last year," Fulton said. "It was not expected."

For the match, UT outshot Florida 13-8. UF's Brittni Goodwin turned in three saves, while UT's Vanessa Phillips-Bosshart posted two saves.

The Gators now return home to await the announcement of the 2003 NCAA Championships' 64-team field. The entire NCAA Soccer bracket will be announced on Monday, Nov. 10 at 4:00 p.m. (EST) on ESPNews. Teams need to have a record of .500 or better to be eligible for a NCAA at-large berth. The first and second rounds of NCAA play are set for Nov. 14 & 16.

After missing a spot in the 2002 NCAA Tournament field, Burleigh is looking forward to Monday's announcement.

"I'm excited about the way we are playing. I think we are playing with a lot of passion combined with being dangerous. I thought we had some great chances tonight," Burleigh said.