Megan Kerns recorded a hat trick, but it was Angela Napolitano's lone goal that broke the game open for the Gators.
Heading into halftime at Alabama on Sunday, UF had a 2-0 lead and looked to be on its way to a blowout until Alabama's Brooke Rogers scored an early second-period goal to cut the lead in half and give the Gators a competitive match.
Or at least it appeared that way.
Just four minutes after Rogers' score, Napolitano netted a goal of her own to give back a two-goal advantage to the No. 10 Gators, and they cruised from then on to a 6-1 victory against the Crimson Tide.
"After (Napolitano) scored that goal, it really helped the team relax and let everybody settle in," Kerns said. "Coming into the second half, Alabama threw a lot of pressure at us, and we started to feel frantic.
"After she scored, though, we calmed down, and things were clicking for us again."
The offensive onslaught came just two days after the UF attack looked out of rhythm in its 1-0 win at Auburn on Friday, with the only goal coming from freshman midfielder Tahnai Annis, her sixth on the year.
In between Friday and Sunday's match, the Gators (13-2-1, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) got a pep talk from assistant coach Alan Kirkup telling them to not just worry about winning but also entertaining.
"He explained to us that there are a lot of different ways to entertain," Kerns said. "It could be by scoring goals, winning a header or making a great tackle, and I think us entertaining really had to do with our win."
Kerns took that to heart as she put three goals in the net, each in a different fashion - a header, a quick shot and one off a rebound. It was her first college hat trick.
The hat trick put the senior forward at nine goals on the season, matching her output from the previous three years combined.
The other two scores against the Tide came by freshman midfielder Lindsay Thompson to put her at six this season.
For the fourth time this season, the offense scored at least three goals, and the defense allowed one or less.
The goal by Alabama was the first score allowed by UF since Oct. 5 at Kentucky.
Since then, sophomore Meghan Berlingo has gotten all four starts at goalie instead of Katie Fraine, who gave up five goals during the Kentucky and Vanderbilt games in which she was the full-time starter. Fraine has played the second halves of the Sunday matches the last two weeks and gave up the only goal in that time.
Berlingo has been the better goalie with 13 saves over 270-shutout minutes the last four matches, but UF coach Becky Burleigh has not yet named a permanent starter.
