Florida graduate student goalkeeper Alexa Goldberg didn’t hesitate to come off her line and make a crucial save on a 1-on-1 against sophomore forward Sydney Watts at 56:20, marking her seventh save of the match to keep Florida afloat.
Florida (4-5-6, 1-4-2 SEC) lost its fourth match of SEC play 2-0 against Vanderbilt (8-2-5, 3-2-3 SEC) to open UF’s Homecoming Weekend at Donald R. Dizney Stadium Friday.
The Gators struggled to construct a solid set piece on offense, marking their sixth match in SEC play where they could not get on the scoreboard.
“At the end of the day, for 90 minutes, we were not in control of that game,” UF head coach Samantha Bohon said. “You got to give Vanderbilt credit, they were organized, you know, player for player, I just thought across the park, they beat us.”
Due to Goldberg’s relentless 10 saves, the second-highest in her career, the Gators were able to keep fighting for a chance at a draw.
However, the Commodores dominated offensively and were able to break through at 25:37 after Watts was able to chip the ball over Goldberg to score the first goal of the match.
Vanderbilt graduate student midfielder Abi Brighton beat UF's defenders for a pass to graduate student forward Mia Gonzalez, who scored at 65:15 to bring the Commodores lead to 2-0.
Watts and Vandy graduate student forward Rachel Derseky set the tone for the match by taking the first two shots of the match in just the first minute.
In the first ten minutes of the match, Vanderbilt totaled three shots to immediately set the tone for the match, compared to the Gators none.
It wasn’t until minute 21:11 that senior defender Madison Young took the first shot for the Gators, but she missed the target.
Florida entered the half down 1-0 and was outshot 8-4 by Vanderbilt.
Defensively, the Commodores were able to slip through the Gator’s backline the entire game and maintain possession.
“We weren’t winning the midfield. We weren’t winning the balls up top,” Bohon said. “I think when you look at the data, our aerial duels, we got killed 50/50. I don’t think we picked up more than 20% of those.”
UF sophomore forward Delaney Tellex and junior midfielder Lauren Donovan connected to get the ball to Young at 63:50, but her shot was turned away by Vanderbilt senior goalkeeper Sara Wojdelko.
Once the Commodores secured its second goal 20 minutes into the second half, the Gators continued to struggle for the remainder of the match.
Florida graduate student defender Daviana Vaka, sophomore forward Amelia Malkin and Donovan all received yellow cards in the last 15 minutes of the match in desperate attempts to stop Vanderbilt.
“We’ve got to figure out how to take what we can from this and get better and not have this compound,” Bohon said. “We’ve got crucial three games remaining.”
Florida will hit the road to take on Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Thursday at 8 p.m.
Contact Amanda Roman at aroman@alligator.org. Follow her on X @mandy_romannn
