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Saturday, the goal post got in the way of glory for the No. 17
Gators.
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the final five seconds in regulation of 8-8 game against No. 3
North Carolina, Florida sophomore Ashley Bruns was able to hurl one
last desperation shot at Tar Heels goalkeeper Lauren Maksym.
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didn’t even think I had enough time to rip the shot off, but yeah,
it definitely hit the pipe,” Bruns said.
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The near miss would haunt the Gators in overtime.
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With six seconds left to play before a tie would be declared, the
Tar Heels’ leading scorer, senior Corey Donohue, capitalized on her
final chance, downing the Gators 10-9 in the extra period.
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“We knew she would be the one to take the last shot, unfortunately
we weren’t able to get the double team down there fast enough and
that’s something we definitely had to talk about after the game,”
UF coach Amanda O’Leary said.
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While she wasn’t happy with the way her team handled the final
seconds of its upset bid, O’Leary was impressed with how the Gators
battled back after they fell behind by three goals in the first 14
minutes.
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Florida crumbled against the Tar Heels last season when the more
experienced team put on the pressure in the second half by pouring
on 12 goals.
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This time around, the Gators returned the favor by going on an 8-3
charge led by sophomore Kitty Cullen who scored four goals,
including two in less than one minute.
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“Once we finally got the ball, we just focused on keeping a little
bit of possession and taking a couple of deep breaths before we
went in and tried to start scoring,” Cullen said.
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Throughout the afternoon, Florida proved it had progressed in many
of the areas that had plagued the team last season when it faced
ranked competition.
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The Gators had fewer turnovers, more shots and drew even on
penalties with the Tar Heels. The glaring issue to O’Leary was how
poorly her team reacted to free position shots – which are
comparable to penalty kicks in soccer.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">In
four attempts on the day, Florida came up scoreless on each try and
missed the goal altogether twice. The Tar Heels scored three goals
off its nine attempts.
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“That hurt us. You can’t have those free opportunities at the goal
and not take advantage of them,” O’Leary said. “I think that was
one of the things I was most disappointed in…There’s no
excuse.”
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Florida repetitively practices the free shots during every practice
O’Leary said, so she couldn’t understand how they came up short on
all of them. Cullen, who had the hot stick on the day, was 0-2
herself on free position attempts.
