Florida Gators

ATHENS, Georgia – A 3-0 win Thursday at Georgia gives Florida soccer the 2015 Southeastern Conference title. The match was played in front of 1,722 at the UGA Soccer Stadium.

Florida entered tonight's match tied with Missouri for first in the SEC standings. The Tigers tied Texas A&M 1-1 in double overtime Thursday. That result moves the Gators into sole possession of the 2015 SEC title.

The Gators climbed their way to the top of the 2015 SEC standings as the team dropped two of its first four league matches. After a 1-1 2OT tie to Kentucky, the Gators won their next six matches. Florida made its first appearance at the top of the 2015 league standings with three matches remaining.

How the Gator Goals Were Scored Tonight:

The Gators opened with two first-half goals – both off the foot of Savannah Jordan. The first in the 21^st minute came after a nice build-up by the Gators, as several players combined to bring the ball down from the Florida half to above the Georgia box. Meggie Dougherty Howard one-touched the ball to Brooke Sharp, located just above the box. Sharp immediately turned to play a ball through the box which Jordan ran down and placed in with her right foot from 10 yards.

Jordan also took advantage of a misplay by the Georgia goalkeeper to score just before the half. A counterattack started with a long ball from Dougherty Howard. The ball landed just below the Bulldog defensive third and Louise Hogrell came out of the box to try to clear the ball. But Jordan won the ball and drove into the box to score on the empty goal at 44:39.

The Gators were awarded a penalty kick in the 55^th minute after Jordan was pushed down in the box. Pamela Begič successfully converted the penalty kick to give the Gators the final margin.

Worth Noting:

·         The two goals give the SEC scoring leader her fifth multi-goal match of the season. Jordan has now scored 19 goals in her junior season and 60 for her career (see chart below).

·         The shutout was Florida's second consecutive and fourth of 2015.

·         Today's win gives Florida head coach Becky Burleigh a career record of 450-121-37 (.771). She is third on the NCAA Division I active wins chart and is the only woman in the top five.

SEC Title Notes:

·         Florida was picked to win the SEC in the preseason coaches vote.

·         The Gators will be the No. 1 seed for next week's SEC Tournament.

·         In the program's 21-year history, Florida soccer leads the league with 14 SEC crowns.

·         It is title No. 225 for the Gators athletics program – the league high.

·         This is the third time Florida has opened league play with a loss (2-1 vs Texas A&M on Sept. 10) and went on to win the SEC title (opened 0-2 in 2007; opened 0-1 in 2012).

Goal 60 for Jordan

Six have scored 60 or more goals in their Gator careers. It took junior Savannah Jordan 65 matches to reach that milestone. That is the same number of matches as Gators' all-time goals leader Abby Wambach took to reach 60 goals. She scored 96 goals as a Gator.

The only Gator quicker to 60 goals is Danielle Fotopoulos, the NCAA all-time goals (118) and points (284) leader. She came to Florida already with 52 collegiate goals, as she played her first two seasons at Southern Methodist. Fotopoulos scored 60 as a Gator in 50 matches.

What the Gators Said:

Florida started off the SEC season with two losses in its first four matches. Did you think the team could get in a position to win its 14^th league title?

"This has been by far one of the most resilient teams I've ever coached. We've been in situations where we've been down in games and come back. Two or three weeks ago, we didn't know we would be in this position to have a shot to win to win the SEC regular season title but they just kept fighting back and fighting back. It was really impressive the will they showed.” – Florida head soccer coach Becky Burleigh

On the Gators play tonight:

I thought we played pretty well. I'm very excited about the shutout. I thought we controlled play from pretty much the beginning of the match. There was some really good combination play and some terrific goals.

“I do feel like that shutout was key. It think it just gives us more and more confidence the more clean sheets we can get. So I was really excited about that.” - Florida head soccer coach Becky Burleigh

On the team move up the SEC standings:

“I think our team showed a lot of resiliency. We talked about it before this game about how proud Becky [Burleigh] was of us and how proud I am personally of our team for fighting that hard to get us back in this position. Who would have thought we would be here after two losses and a tie early in the season, but some crazy things happened in the SEC and we were fortunate enough to get back in this position. I think our team showed resiliency throughout the whole season. We kept fighting and it worked out for us.” – junior forward Savannah Jordan

Records:

Florida: 14-3-1, 8-2-1 SEC

UGA: 5-11-1, 4-7 SEC

Rankings:

Florida is ranked No. 6 on the October 27 National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll.

Next up:

Southeastern Conference Tournament action starts Nov. 2 in Orange Beach, Alabama. The complete SEC Tournament bracket will be released by the league office on Oct. 30.

All of the play-in, first- and semifinal round action airs live on the SEC Network. The SEC Tournament final airs live on ESPNU at 2 p.m. ET on Nov. 8. All of Florida's matches can be heard on GatorZone.com. All matches also available on WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app.

No. 6 Florida (14-3-1, 8-2-1 SEC) at Georgia (5-11-1, 4-7 SEC)

Stadium: UGA Soccer Stadium (1,722)

Weather: 61 degrees, 86% humidity, partly cloudy, winds 4mph W

 Scoring Summary:

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 Shots: Florida 18; UGA 6

 Saves: Florida 4 (Kaylan Marckese 4); UGA 6 (Louise Hogrell 6)

Cautions: Sydney Shultis/UGA - yellow (80:31); Emma Sonnett/UGA – yellow (84:23)