On Wednesday afternoon, just before departing for Louisiana, Taylor Travis got a haircut that reminded many around the program of former UF great Abby Wambach.
Sporting her fresh ‘do last night against LSU, Travis scored a goal that even Wambach would have been jealous of.
The freshman forward led No. 12 Florida (13-2-2, 7-1-1 Southeastern Conference) to a 2-0 victory over LSU (6-7-4, 3-3-3 SEC) with a blast from nearly 40 yards out that drilled the upper 90 in the left corner of the post.
Travis received the ball at midfield and saw space as the LSU defenders were drawn by UF attackers and parted like the Red Sea.
“I had a shot and I knew it was far away,” she said. “But why the heck not, so I took it and it happened to be a good hit.”
The goal came in the fourth minute of action, and it set a positive tone for the rest of the match.
Determined to avoid a letdown similar to their last road trip, the Gators hunkered down and didn’t allow LSU to get on the board.
It was Florida’s third SEC road victory this season, all with a final line of 2-0.
“It’s tough at this point of the season to go on the road in the SEC and get a shutout,” coach Becky Burleigh said. “We’re happy with that for sure.”
After Travis’ early goal, the rest of the first half was a defensive grudge match as Florida failed to mount any real threats.
The Tigers consistently clogged the middle and closed the passing lanes, forcing the Gators to alter their usual attack.
But Florida did a good job in the first half of thwarting LSU’s long-ball threats.
“I thought defensively we were really on our toes,” Burleigh said. “LSU put a lot of pressure on us. They liked to pump the long ball through the box and sometimes that’s not easy to defend with the way we attack, but I thought we were really good at staying focused at the task at hand.”
LSU was not without its chances in the second half, and in the first 90 seconds the Tigers nearly scored the equalizer. But Gators goalie Katie Fraine spoiled the attempt and preserved the shutout.
LSU matched Florida in shots on goal with five, but the Tigers couldn’t break the sometimes-leaky Gators defense.
Fraine made several key saves and twice benefited from balls that drilled the post and evaded the goal.
In the 71st minute, Burleigh substituted one goal scorer for another.
The Gators coach swapped Travis for sophomore midfielder Natalia Torosian, who promptly scored 30 seconds after entering the game.
On a play set up by fellow substitute Maggie Rodgers, Torosian ripped a shot from 10 yards inside the box, her third goal of the 2010 campaign.
Burleigh said they both played well in practice this week and deserved a shot to play.
Travis echoed her coach’s sentiments.
“They came out and did a great job bringing energy to the team,” she said. “They both deserved that.”
