Andujar's Toughness Ideal for Gators' Toughest Position
Thursday, September 25, 2014 | Soccer, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The question was broached somewhat delicately. Florida outside back Tessa Andujar was asked if her “diminutive stature” was something she'd been dealing with all her life.
Andujar cocked her head with a curious look.
“You mean being short?” she asked.
Well, yeah that's another way to put it. Andujar goes just 5 feet, 2 inches, but packs a lot of punch in her game and backs down to no one. That's the only way she's known to play soccer; with aggression, with fight.
And while both her parents were short, she added, at least one of them had that never-back-down trait, also.
“My dad made me tough,” Andujar said. “He was a world-champion kick-boxer.”
Well, that explains some things. For openers, her ability to use her feet, but more so the unbridled determination with which she plays the most demanding position in Coach Becky Burleigh's attacking scheme.
“Size may be a factor when you're matched against a much bigger player, but Tessa just looks at that as a challenge to be quicker and to be better,” said Burleigh, whose No. 7 Gators (6-2, 1-0) host a pair of Southeastern Conference foes this weekend, starting with Friday night's date against No. 22 Georgia (6-1-1, 1-0-1) at Pressly Stadium. “Bottom line, she's a really, really tough kid. I don't think it matters what limitations Tessa has. She's going to find a way.”
Andujar, a senior from San Clemente, Calif., came to UF as a hotshot forward from one of the most decorated high school and club teams on the west coast. She was used to scoring goals, but Burleigh and her staff saw her skills set as an ideal fit at outside back -- the two players who flank the last line of the defense, but also must have the speed to work the sideline vertically (and relentlessly) and be on the attack on offense.
“You have to have that bulldog mentality if you want to play that position in our system, but you also have to have a little bit of finesse in your game,” explained associate coach head coach Vic Campbell. “It's so demanding, physically. You have to make the right calls on defense, or it can cost you, but offensively you're asked to get up the field, get in there, mix it up and be part of the scheme. We're asking a lot.”
Once Andujar got a taste of the spot, she fell for it.
And now she's excelling at it.
From her outside back spot, Andujar tops the team with four assists and is one of its leaders in minutes played. That second statistic becomes all the more impressive considering the coaches reviewed last weekend's 2-1 win at Alabama in the SEC opener and documented Andujar ran more than 11,000 meters in the game.
That's 6.8 miles.
Much of it at full sprint, by the way.
“I've always liked running,” she said.
Junior teammate Claire Falknor plays alongside Andujar as one of UF's middle backs. Falknor is a converted outside back, who spent the summer training with Andujar and targeting specific weaknesses in their games.
“She has heart, I have more technical skill,” Falknor said. “Working with her really improved my fitness because she could push through just about any drill and any level of fatigue. And I think I helped her with some technical things, as far as her ball skills.”
Those four assists are evidence of that, with Andujar having developed quite a deft touch when it comes to her crosses to teammates crashing the goal.
“I'm just trying to put the ball in the right places,” she said.
She's succeeding. People are noticing.
In a game earlier this month at Stanford -- a 1-0 loss in overtime -- the fourth-ranked Cardinal demonstrated the utmost respect for Andujar by playing well off her and giving her space versus the risk of guarding her tight and risking a blow-by move. Part of that strategy was because the Stanford coaches (and several players) knew Andujar from her California club days. The other part was because they'd seen tape of her play this season.
“We had to do a lot of defending in that game because they're a really good team,” Burleigh said. “But she was also a complete offensive threat to them and they were really concerned about her. You could tell by their reaction to her they just did not want to commit.”
The Gators hope that respectful trend continues, as Andujar gets better and better. Maybe even tougher and tougher.
Remember the aforementioned nugget about her father the kick-boxer? Well, Andujar's mother is apparently pretty tough, too. She's currently hiking the Appalachian Trail.
By herself.
“The aggressive part, that comes easy,” she said. “The rest, everybody has kind of helped me with since I got here and now it's all kind of coming together.”
