As time expired at Dizney Stadium, UF coach Becky Burleigh watched her team, the 2015 Southeastern Conference Tournament champs, fall to Duke University in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament Championship.
She saw her team’s three seniors, Claire Falknor, Christen Westphal and Lauren Smith, who led their younger teammates all season, walk off the field in their last collegiate soccer game.
She also saw her 21st season as the head coach of Florida come to a disappointing end.
But Burleigh would be the first person to tell you the Gators’ 19 wins in 2015 weren’t for nothing. Rather, they were a stepping stone for her players and the future of the program.
“It’s always tough to end the season, it never gets any easier,” Burleigh said in a release after the game on Nov. 22. “I know it’s really easy to just look at it as an ending of a season, but for me I look at the progress that this team made throughout the course of the year.”
Now, nearly nine months later, the No. 7 Gators are ready to prove they are talented enough to win their first NCAA National Championship since 1998 when they open their season on Friday at home against Iowa State.
The 2016 team will feature 15 new faces, with 13 freshmen and two transfer students, Erika Nelson and Parker Roberts.
Roberts, a sophomore transfer from Kansas, is a member of the U.S. Under-20 national team.
Nelson is a redshirt senior who graduated from Maryland in the spring who will play her fifth and final year of eligibility with the Gators.
She was a medical redshirt last season.
“Erika brings a ton of experience as a fifth-year senior, as she’s faced some of the nation’s top teams throughout her collegiate career,” Burleigh said in a May 10 release. “Parker’s play with the U.S. U20 team will definitely benefit the Gators.”
UF’s 2016 team also includes three Gators — seniors Meggie Dougherty Howard and Savannah Jordan and redshirt junior Gabby Seiler — who are on the Missouri Athletic Club’s (MAC) Hermann Trophy Watch List, collegiate soccer’s most prestigious individual award.
Howard, a member of the U.S. Under-23 roster, had eight assists last season and was a part of the All-Southeastern Conference Second Team. Jordan, the SEC Offensive Player of the Year, was a semi-finalist for the Hermann Trophy in 2015.
She had 24 goals and 55 points last season, ranking second in the NCAA standings.
Seiler, who didn’t play in 2015 after transferring from the University of Georgia, had nine goals and nine assists in 2014 and was apart of the All-SEC first team.
Those three will help lead the team when regular-season play begins in Gainesville on Friday, Aug. 19 against Iowa State.
Contact Lauren Staff at lstaff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @lstaff27
UF soccer coach Becky Burleigh puts her arm around defender Rachelle Smith (81) following Florida's 3-2 win against Florida Sate on Aug. 30, 2015, at James G. Pressly Stadium.
