Tymrak Targets Postseason Run for Gators Despite Target on Her Back
Thursday, October 27, 2011 | Soccer, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Erika Tymrak got a massage on Tuesday, the Gator soccer team's day off.
She needed a rubdown, especially on those bruised and battered legs that provide much of the fuel for Florida's offense.
Tymrak plays with a target on her back most of the time. A junior midfielder/forward, Tymrak has scored a career-high 27 points – 11 goals and five assists – heading into Florida's regular-season finale with South Carolina on Friday night at Pressly Stadium.
South Carolina has locked up a guaranteed share of its first conference regular-season title with its 8-2 record. The Gators need a win Friday to claim a share of its sixth-consecutive title. With a history between them, you can bet the Gamecocks will be coming hard at Tymrak the way everyone else does.
That's what happens when you're the league's second-leading scorer and a promising young player who spent part of her summer in Sweden with the U.S. U23 National Team.
Everyone knows your name and your game.
There's more to it than that, however. It's the way Tymrak plays, at times dominating the action as if the soccer ball is tied to her feet, acting like a yo-yo as she glides down the field looking to make something happen.
“That [skill was there] actually at a very early age,'' said David Tymrak, Erika's father. “She would take the ball from one end of the field to the other. She had this knack for just keeping the ball at her feet.''
As Tymrak got older, the former ice skater who grew up on a lake in Michigan until her family moved to Florida when she was 11 noticed opponents trying harder and harder to break up the relationship between her feet and the ball.
She made the necessary adjustments, her natural talent usually enough to overcome lesser-skilled opponents. The competition in the SEC is more difficult, of course, but some of the tactics to try and slow down Tymrak are the same.
Sometimes they foul her after she passes the ball. Other times they tackle her away from the ball. Sometimes they try to run through her when she has the ball.
The 5-foot-5 Tymrak keeps on chugging along like the little engine that could.
“It's definitely frustrating at times, but I try to look at it as an advantage,'' she said. “If teams want to foul me every time I get the ball, that's fine. I'm going to sacrifice my body for my team.
“If people are going to man-mark me, use it to my advantage – take it away from the play so at least it leaves space for somebody to come into. If people are going to follow me, get it into the box where I can get a free kick and one of my teammates can finish it. I'm going to use it as an advantage and turn it back on them.''
That approach is one that has worked, perhaps none more so than Florida's 3-2 victory over Auburn earlier this month. With the score tied 2-2 in overtime – Tymrak had scored both of Florida's goals – the ball was at her feet about seven minutes into the extra session.
It was time to make a play.
Tymrak attacked the middle of the field, leaving an Auburn defender to make a difficult decision. As Tymrak charged forward, teammate McKenzie Barney broke free down toward the left box. Which way would the defender go?
When the defender charged toward Tymrak, instead of trying for the hat trick, she made a swift pass to Barney, who delivered the game-winning goal.
It marked the fourth time in her career that Tymrak played a role in every goal in a match that Florida has scored multiple times. The Gators are 4-0 in those games, proving that when Tymrak has space to do her thing, it usually spells trouble for the opponent.
“I'm more of a dribble. I like to dribble at people,'' Tymrak said. “When people hack you, you have to give the ball up. I had to change my game up a little.''
David introduced his oldest daughter, Melanie, and Erika to soccer when the girls were young. They spent hours out in the yard practicing. When they joined youth teams in Michigan, David was drafted as a coach.
He eventually joined a men's league himself to get more involved in the game his daughters continued to play all the way to college. While Melanie played at Florida Gulf Coast University and is now working toward a law degree, Erika's interest in the game hasn't wavered.
David and his wife, Gina, make the trip from their home in Manatee County to Gainesville for each game. He often has to bite his tongue when Erika starts taking a beating on the field.
“That type of play is all part of the game,'' he said. “I know that Erika has got the ability to recognize that and kind of work her way through that. She'll work her way through it.''
She usually does, often with a feistiness that she partly developed playing mostly against boys when she was younger and later against stellar competition in high school at the IMG Academy in Bradenton.
“I was small. I didn't really hit my growth spurt until I was about 15,'' Tymrak said. “To basically fit in and to stay on the field, I had to use my feet and my speed as my advantage.''
During her prep career Tymrak joined the Olympic Development Program and participated in her first international tournament with the U.S. U17 team in New Zealand in 2008.
“Everyone kind of doubted me. 'What is she doing here?' '' Tymrak said. “The next year I came back and I think I just stepped it up and was doing my moves. I developed this confidence that kind of came out of nowhere. Ever since then, soccer has been very fortunate for me.''
Tymrak hopes to continue playing for Team USA in the future, but for now she wants to lead the Gators to another SEC title. Tymrak was named MVP of the 2010 SEC Soccer Tournament by scoring a goal and adding four assists, helping Florida defeat South Carolina 1-0 for the title.
She'll take a similar finish to this season, even if it means more bruises and bumps on those spindly legs of hers.
“It's leave-it-all-out-on-the-field time,'' Tymrak said.
