When some of its upperclassmen addressed the rest of the UF soccer team on Tuesday, the other players listened closely.
The message: avenge last year's losses to Georgia and Tennessee.
The No. 16 Gators (7-2-1, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) completed the task with a 5-1 obliteration of the Volunteers (3-7, 0-2 SEC) on Sunday after a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory against Georgia on Friday night.
UF coach Becky Burleigh felt pretty good after opening with two conference wins at home.
"A lot better than last year, starting 0-2," Burleigh said while laughing. "It doesn't mean that we can take any other weekends off, but it certainly is a much better start than what we had last year."
The Gators' match against the Volunteers seemed to be over by halftime, with UF leading 3-0.
After Tennessee missed an early opportunity with a shot off the post in the first couple of minutes, senior Ameera Abdullah made them pay.
The midfielder scored the first two goals of the match, the first for her since the opening game of the season.
Abdullah also eclipsed the 50-point career mark, becoming just the 14th Gator to do so.
"Hard work, getting in the box," she said of her scoring chances. "What our coaches stressed the most out of my position was just getting as many players in the box."
It worked for her first goal, as freshman Tahnai Annis' cross bounced through the box to Abdullah, who chested the ball into the goal.
For her second score, Abdullah shook a Tennessee defender loose to open up a small window to shoot. She drilled the ball from the left corner of the box about 20 yards out into the right corner of the net.
"The second goal was a really great, just skillful display," Burleigh said.
UF hadn't defeated Tennessee in the regular season since 2002, so beating them by 4 was somewhat surprising.
"Every year we've been so close and always lost, but this year to come out with a big win like that, especially with the youth of our team, it's just been tremendous," Abdullah said.
On Friday night, senior forward Megan Kerns scored both of the Gators' goals, but she paid the price physically.
Kerns took a blow by a Georgia defender as both were going up for a header about midway through the second half.
She stumbled to her feet and left the game before re-entering later in the half with a knot the size of a golf ball on her forehead.
That didn't stop her from scoring the sudden-victory goal in overtime, setting the tone for the weekend.
Abdullah did not want what happened last year to linger on the freshmen on this year's squad, and there was no better way to prevent that than by defeating both of the Gators' rivals.
"We just tried to show the younger (players) how it's done," Abdullah said.
