Sometimes reaching the pinnacle of sport doesn't seem too far away.
That's exactly the feeling the UF soccer team experienced last season when it watched rival Florida State go against Southern Cal for the national title.
The Gators had lost 1-0 against Southern Cal in the NCAA round of 16 after defeating Florida State earlier in the season.
So they knew they actually had a championship-caliber team.
"How much closer can you get, losing to the national champion and beating the runners-up?" junior defender Lauren Hyde asked.
It didn't make for good TV for the Gators.
"It was kind of upsetting knowing that we did beat them in the beginning of the year and knowing that we could've been in that same position," Ashlee Elliott said. "It does make us realize how close we can be (to winning a national championship)."
On Sunday afternoon, No. 23 UF will get a chance to repeat last year's upset when it takes on No. 4 FSU at 4:30 in Tallahassee, the Gators' only match of the weekend.
Elliott doesn't think much will change from last year's match.
"I think it's gonna be 2-1 (Gators)," she said.
This time around, however, the Gators will bring 16 freshmen and a load of inexperience into a hostile environment, and with FSU looking to avenge last season's loss, UF will certainly have its work cut out.
UF coach Becky Burleigh thinks this game is just like any other, except that its intensity is magnified by the rivalry.
Despite the hype, she doesn't feel the need to address the rivalry with her team simply because it's understood.
What she will have her team focus on entering this game is finishing scoring chances and playing team defense.
"This game is one game in a 19-game schedule for us," Burleigh said. "The rivalry adds to it, but that's what the game is. We've got a lot of season and this game is as important as any game we play."
Although UF's freshmen have never participated in the rivalry game, they were immersed in the build-up this week.
"The (younger) girls know that it is FSU, knowing that they get the rivalry off of us older girls," Elliott said. "They get the edge. They get the excitement, knowing that we want to beat them so much."
