Nine months after the 2007 season ended, UF heads into the new year with the same dilemma as the previous.
Who will start in the goal?
Redshirt sophomore Katie Fraine and sophomore Meghan Berlingo split time in the net last season. Fraine started the season before sharing duties with Berlingo, who started the final 11 games with Fraine coming in for the second half.
While the team had success with the two-goalie rotation (it won 10 of 11 matches before finally losing to eventual national champion Southern Cal in the Sweet Sixteen), coach Becky Burleigh wants one goalie to play the majority of the time.
"We're trying to find a starter, but preseason is short for us," Burleigh said. "We only had two weeks to prepare for our first game, and we still don't have a starter chosen yet."
In the opening weekend of play, the two goalies were tested out, with each starting and playing an entire match. Fraine got the first in a 1-1 tie at Colorado on Friday night and Berlingo got the 2-1 overtime win in Sunday's game at Florida Atlantic.
Fraine made five saves to Berlingo's two.
Fraine is looking to make the most of her time in goal but still would like to know whom the coaches are going to choose as the team's starter.
"We haven't been (told) yet who will start, but it has been a battle all throughout preseason between the two of us," Fraine said. "So I'm interested myself to find out, but they are keeping that from us."
Neither player has separated herself far enough from the other for Burleigh to name a starter for the Gators, who enter the season ranked No.20 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
If there is no apparent starter, she is still unsure if she will stick to rotating the two again this season.
"That is a bridge we will have to cross if we come to it," Burleigh said.
While the Gators are still unsure who will be in goal each game, they still have other issues to solve if they are to improve on their 2007 season, which included a Southeastern Conference Championship.
UF lost its top three goal scorers from last year's team and will be looking to two preseason All-SEC midfielders in junior Ashlee Elliott and senior Ameera Abdullah. Abdullah will be trying regain her 2006 form, when she was second on the team in goals with 11 compared to four in 2007.
"I'm going to try my hardest to play consistent throughout the whole game and try to score," Abdullah said. "But if that's my job, I have to try and do that."
She got off to a quick start by scoring UF's first goal of the season against the Buffaloes.
"It was terrific for her to start the season like that, especially in front of her friends and family," Burleigh said.
Even though the upperclassmen are expected to lead the team, the large freshman class will be vital to the team's success.
The Gators added 16 new faces to the team - it is UF's second-largest incoming freshman class after the group of 21 in 1995.
A few of the new faces will even be counted on to start for UF on defense.
Sarah Chapman and Jazmyne Avant already cracked the starting lineup for the opening games, while other newcomers saw minutes as substitutes.
Forward Tahnai Annis has also made her presence known by scoring the winning goal against the Owls on Sunday.
Once the freshmen become acclimated to college-level soccer and the goalie situation is solved, UF is expected to compete for its third consecutive SEC title. The Gators were picked by the league coaches to win the conference.
"We're not coming out worried about our reputation or anything other people think," Fraine said. "We just want to come out and beat teams no matter what they think of us. We just want to outplay them and show them what we are about."
