No Magnolia & Moonlight Friday; Gators Expect Battle at Mississippi State
Thursday, October 15, 2015 | Soccer, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The mere mention of a road trip to Mississippi State brought a grimace to Becky Burleigh. No, not because of an aversion to the sound of cowbells.
Just two years ago, the 12th-ranked Gators faced the Bulldogs on the road. UF was 9-3-1 and smack in the middle of contention for the Southeastern Conference crown. MSU was 3-9 and winless in six league games.
So, of course, the game became a turn in the dentist chair for the visitors.
The Gators -- get this -- set an NCAA single-game record for corner kicks with 26. For context, this year's team is averaging 5.2 corners per game.
“And we didn't score on any of them,” Burleigh said.
In fact, it wasn't until forward Savannah Jordan, then a freshman, netted a header in the second overtime did Florida escape with a 1-0 win. All it took was 108 minutes, 51 seconds.
Well, here the Gators (10-3-1, 4-2-1) headed for the Magnolia State for a Friday night match against the Bulldogs (4-7-3, 2-3-2), who are floating near the bottom of the conference standings but certainly capable of making the UF muck about in the Mississippi mud.
On Sunday, MSU upset Kentucky by shutting out the No. 20 Wildcats 3-0, the same team Florida played to a 1-1 standoff the weekend before.
“One of the worst things you can do is underestimate a team,” senior defender Claire Falknor said. “My sophomore year we went there and had to go to double-overtime. The few of us left that were there, we remember. They're a hard team to play.”
That last time, Falkner explained, the Bulldogs “bunkered” their defense, packing their numbers back and waiting for the Gators to fall out of position or make a mistake before going on a rare attack (MSU was outshot in that game 25-8). That sort of strategy gums things up, which runs counter to the way Florida likes to spread things out, use its speed and stay aggressive.
So the potential for frustration exists.
“We have to stay patient and look for channels,” Falknor said.
For a veteran team, that's not a lot to ask. Florida may be heading into Game 15, but the Gators are still a team of 15 freshmen, two of them starters and another eight playing regular minutes, including goalkeeper Kaylan Marckese, now 5-0-1 as a starter.
She turns 18 next April.
“I'm the youngest on the team -- by a lot -- and we joke about it, but it really doesn't matter, doesn't translate on the field,” Marckese said. “We're going to be a young team all year and that's not something that's going to change. We'll just keep trying to learn and grow.”
Part of that process is developing an even-keel approach to games exactly like this one. Starkville is not easy to get to and even if the crowd isn't very big the fans will make up for it with those cowbells.
The Gators, in third place in the SEC standings but just a game behind front-running South Carolina, have plenty to play for and won't be looking past Mississippi State. Not after what the Bulldogs did to Kentucky.
Not after that infamous record-setting performance of two years ago.
“It's a single-game weekend and it's an important game like all the rest,” Burleigh said. “Plus, I think we need to remind our team of our corner kick futility.”
Whatever it takes.
