Saturday night’s NCAA first-round matchup for the No. 2 regional seed Florida soccer team — a 1-0 victory over Western Michigan — was anything but a cakewalk.
It would seem that the first round of a large-scale tournament like the NCAAs would offer the higher seeds a matchup to warm them up for the deeper rounds — a tune-up game.
But that isn’t the case in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The fleeting nature of the game of soccer can take some credit for this.
Goals are hard to come by — only 39 of the 328 teams in Division I average at least two goals per game — and matches are often won based on who controls the possession game.
And because of the rarity of goals, that means less of a chance of a blowout, even in the first round of the 64-team tournament.
In last season’s NCAA tournament, despite a 3-0 win in the first round over Mercer, Florida had a one-goal lead going into the final 10 minutes of the match. It needed 82nd- and 90th-minute goals by Savannah Jordan to pull ahead and secure the win.
But Mercer had just as much a chance to score two goals in that time, and had a few sequences went differently, the Gators might have been looking at their second first round exit of the year.
In last season’s Southeastern Conference Tournament, Tennessee knocked out No. 2-seeded Florida in penalty kicks.
For Florida coach Becky Burleigh, the win Saturday night was the best possible outcome for her team, even though the match didn’t offer many advantages for either side.
The closeness the game against the Broncos presented showed the Gators that the tournament is no walk in the park.
Soccer is one of the only games that a team can be completely dominated, but one or two moments could be the difference between a win, a loss or a draw, and stakes of tournament-style play intensifies each and every pass or shot or substitution.
"You can see how close you can come to not moving on and moving on," Burleigh said.
"The margin of victory is slim."
For Friday night’s second round, Florida is partnered up with a William & Mary team that got to Gainesville via an overtime victory against UCF in Orlando.
The Tribe also has one of the NCAA’s longest tenured coaches in John Daly, who has headed the team since 1987.
"He’s really, really savvy," Burleigh said. "He’s a smart guy, he’s gonna prepare the team very well."
Florida isn’t worried about what the other side can bring to the table.
Burleigh knows that, as the season progresses, her team still has more to prove, and that’s about all she can try to control.
"Our best soccer," Burleigh said, crediting Jordan’s words after Friday night’s game. "is still ahead of us."
Follow Kyle Brutman on Twitter @KBrut13
UF soccer coach Becky Burleigh talks with her team following Florida's 2-1 loss to Texas A&M on Sept. 10, 2015, at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
