As has happened for the last four autumns, the Florida soccer team quietly has a chance to bring the first fall championship to Gainesville.
Standing in the way is its newfound rival: South Carolina.
Tonight at 7 in Columbia, S.C., the No. 8 Gators (14-2-2, 8-1-1 Southeastern Conference) challenge the No. 17 Gamecocks (14-3-2, 8-1-1 SEC) for conference supremacy.
The winner is crowned the SEC champion and notches a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
For seniors Nicky Kit, Ashlee Elliott and Katie Fraine, it’s their last regular-season game and last chance to leave Gainesville with a ring on every finger.
“You come to Florida to win championships,” Fraine said. “You come to play the best teams in the country. If we win this one, we’re bringing home another [championship].”
Coach Becky Burleigh, who started Florida’s program in 1995, is seeking her fifth straight conference championship and 11th overall. Burleigh has built the Gators into a national powerhouse and the most dominant team in the conference.
When asked what winning a fifth straight title would mean for the program, she said, “I think it’s big on consistency for sure. It’s not easy to do every year when you have that target on your back. A lot of credit goes to our players for not taking anything for granted and coming out each season with that as a goal.”
Tonight’s finale is like déjà vu, as last season the rivalry intensified when the Gators closed out the regular-season finale with a 3-0 home victory against the Gamecocks, securing the conference championship. However, just one week later in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament, South Carolina beat Florida 1-0 en route to its first ever tournament title.
“They outworked us [last game],” Fraine said. “They beat us fair and square. It was heartbreaking. It makes us really want to show them that they don’t have a right to steal our championships.”
