SEC Tournament Bracket
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – An early goal stood 83 minutes as Florida soccer upset No. 10 Vanderbilt 1-0 in Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinal play Tuesday evening at the Orange Beach Sportsplex.
With the win, Florida moves ahead to its 21
st SEC Tournament semifinal to face Arkansas or Mississippi in Thursday's SEC Tournament play. That semifinal is the first of the day and
airs live on the SEC Network at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Tuesday's Action:
The only goal of the match started when
Mayra Pelayo sent the ball ahead to fellow senior
Laís Arajuo in middle of the box. The touch off Araujo's leg popped up and then it was a foot race between sophomore
Madison Alexander and VU goalkeeper Lauren Demarchi. Alexander got enough of her right toe on the ball to send it toward goal. It caught the lower part of the cross bar and banged it at 6:20 for UF's earliest goal of the season.
The Commodores had their opportunities, but the Gator defense kept making the stop. Florida senior goalkeeper
Kaylan Marckese made a couple of one-handed second-half saves – including off an eight-yard header by Kaylann Boyd and an 18-yard dipping shot by Grace Jackson – to preserve the shutout.
Both teams recorded 11 shots and each goalkeeper turned in four saves.
Notes:
- With her first-half score, Alexander now leads the Gators with six goals in 2018.
- Marckese extends her Gator career solo shutouts record to 29 with tonight's result. She took sole possession of the record last Thursday with the 3-0 win over Arkansas in the SEC regular-season finale.
- Florida played without senior Sarah Troccoli Tuesday due to suspension as she received a red card in the second half of Sunday's match versus Auburn. Sunday's match was the 90th UF played in her collegiate career and Troccoli had appeared in each one.
- This the second consecutive year the No. 8 seed sent the SEC Tournament's top seed home in quarterfinal play. The SEC began tournament seeding based on regular-season finish in 1999. Since then, the No. 8 seed upset the top seed four times in quarterfinal action (2002, 2011, 2017 and 2018).
- Arkansas broke the 2018 SEC Tournament trend for upsets, as the lower seed won three of the four quarterfinal matches today – No. 7 seed Missouri advanced over No. 2 seed Tennessee on penalty kicks, No. 6 seed South Carolina 2-1 winners over No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 8 Florida 1-0 over top-seeded Vanderbilt. No. 4 Arkansas' 4-0 win over No.5 Mississippi was the day's only match the higher seed prevailed.
- This is the second consecutive year Florida advanced to SEC Tournament semifinal play with a 1-0 win over a team that defeated the Gators in regular-season play (both Auburn/2017 and Vanderbilt/2018 won 2-1 over UF in regular-season meeting).
- Markese's performance versus Vanderbilt earned her the No. 6 spot on the Oct. 31 ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 Plays
2018 Records:
Florida: 7-9-4, 4-4-2 SEC
Vanderbilt: 15-3-1, 8-1-1 SEC
Series Record:
Florida leads 27-3-1.
The Gators are now 8-0 versus the Commodores in SEC Tournament action.
Next Up:
2018 Southeastern Conference Tournament play continues Thursday in Orange Beach, Ala. Each match of the SEC Tournament airs live on the SEC Network.
| FIRST ROUND: October 28 |
Match 1 – LSU 3, Missouri 2 2OT |
|
SEC Network |
|
Match 2 – Florida 1, Auburn 1 2OT (UF 2-1 PK) |
|
SEC Network |
| QUARTERFINALS: October 30 |
Match 3 – LSU 1, Tennessee 1 2OT (LSU 7-6 PK) |
|
SEC Network |
|
Match 4 – South Carolina 2, Texas A&M 1 |
|
SEC Network |
|
Match 5 – Florida 1, Vanderbilt 0 |
|
SEC Network |
|
Match 6 - Arkansas 4, Mississippi 0 |
|
SEC Network |
| SEMIFINALS: November 1 |
Match 7 - Florida vs Arkansas |
4:30 pm |
SEC Network |
|
Match 8 - LSU vs South Carolina |
7 pm |
SEC Network |
| FINAL: November 4 |
Championship - W Match #8 vs W Match #7 |
3 pm |
SEC Network |
Vanderbilt (15-3-1, 8-1-1 SEC) at Florida (7-9-4, 4-4-2 SEC)
Orange Beach Sportsplex
74 degrees, winds SE 9 mph, 79% humidity
| Goals by Period |
1 |
2 |
Total |
| Vanderbilt |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Florida |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Shots: UF 11, VU 1
Saves: UF 4 (
Kaylan Marckese 4), VU 4 (Lauren Demarchi 4)
Cautions:
None
