The Gators began their 2012 season against the same
team and the same location as they did in 2011. But defensive
mistakes late in the first half prevented them from avoiding the
same result: a close loss.
No. 4 Florida turned the ball over 14 times as it
lost its regular season opener to No. 3 North Carolina, 11-9,
Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill.
“We couldn’t take care of the ball and when you can’t
take care of the ball it’s going to work against you,” Gators coach
Amanda O’Leary said.
UF also fell to UNC to in Chapel Hill to open the
2011 season, an 11-10 overtime loss, but a multitude of defensive
errors kept Saturday’s game out of reach in regulation for the
Gators.
“We just didn’t hold them very well in a 1 v. 1
sense,” O’Leary said. “We made some mental mistakes. We didn’t pick
up the ball carrier one time on one of the goals. Another time we
just didn’t play good 1-on-1 defense and weren’t there to help
slide.”
With the game tied at three with just less than nine
minutes remaining in the first half, Tar Heels sophomore midfielder
Brittany Coppa put a bouncing shot past Gators goalkeeper Mikey
Meagher.
It was the first of four consecutive UNC goals to end
the first half, but the most crushing just before halftime as Tar
Heels junior midfielder Kara Cannizzaro scored the third of her
four goals with just one second remaining in the half.
“It was a defensive letdown,” O’Leary said. “That’s
for sure.”
O’Leary replaced Meagher with Cara Canington to begin
the second half after Meagher allowed seven goals while saving just
two shots.
“They’re playing just about equal,” O’Leary said of
the goalkeepers. “We just went and put Cara in the game to see what
she could do.”
Cannizzaro’s fourth goal also came at an opportune
time for UNC. With 7:56 in the game, Florida junior defender Sam
Farrell was given a yellow card, putting the Gators a man-down. UNC
took advantage of being a man up as Cannizzaro put a shot past
Canington from the 8-meter circle to put the Tar Heel up 11-8 with
6:28 left in the game.
“We were already down and pressuring anyway,” O’Leary
said. “Unfortunately, when we got the yellow card, that was the
second whammy. Not only are we pressuring out, but we’re are man
down.”
The Gators had scored three consecutive goals prior
to Cannizzaro’s scoring UNC’s final goal. Junior attacker Kitty
Cullen, who also scored the game’s first goal on a free-position
shot, beat Tar Heels goalkeeper Lauren Maksym twice in two minutes
to make it 10-7, and junior midfielder Gabi Wiegand followed
Cullen’s second goal by scoring on a free-position shot a little
more than minute later.
Gators junior attacker Ashley Bruns completed a hat
trick with 2:49 remaining in the game to cut the deficit back to
two, but the Gators were unable to pull any closer.
“I think if we had a couple more minutes we might
have been able to pull it off, but we should have been playing 100
percent the whole game as opposed to just the end,” Cullen
said.
