After a last-minute loss to South Carolina on Thursday night, No. 5 Florida (11-4, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) dropped its second straight game — and fourth of the season — on Sunday in Lexington, Ky., losing 2-0 to Kentucky (10-5, 5-3 SEC).
The Wildcats played a very physical game against the Gators, and although UF coach Becky Burleigh said the team expected it coming into the match, the team didn’t handle it well.
From the game’s first minute, Florida struggled to keep the ball and never got in rhythm.
Kentucky pressured players with the ball and didn’t allow the Gators to build any attacks of significant danger.
The Wildcats got on the board in the 33rd minute from a Zoe Swift goal, her fourth of the season, and took the one-goal lead into halftime.
Florida may have had a more effective game plan for the second half, but it never got a chance to find out. The Wildcats added a second goal in the 50th minute from Stuart Pope, who put a rebound from a diving Taylor Burke save in the back of the net.
Burleigh called the goal a "backbreaker."
From that point, the Wildcats locked down defensively and prevented the Gators from getting anywhere near the penalty box, holding Florida to only two shots for the entire second half.
Florida’s players began getting desperate and started trying to make plays individually, Burleigh said, which caused them to play out of character.
"We just got into a mode of people trying a little bit too hard, instead of just working as a unit," Burleigh said. "You can’t really fault that effort, but at the same time, that’s not really who we are as a team. We’re a team that sees the sum of the parts are bigger than the whole."
Savannah Jordan was Florida’s leading shooter, getting off four attempts - two of which were on goal. She began to get visibly frustrated late in the game after a few unsuccessful attacks.
Burleigh believes the recent slump is something that needs to be corrected quickly, but the problem is fixable if the players get back to who they are.
"What we need to fix is all within us," she said. "It’s not anything we have to get from any place else, we just have to get back to our roots of trusting each other and playing one- and two-touch."
Follow Graham Hack on Twitter @graham_hack
Savannah Jordan chases the ball during Florida's 2-1 win against Georgia on Sept. 26.
