Following Florida’s 2-1 loss to Duke in the third round of the NCAA tournament Sunday, coach Becky Burleigh opened her post-game press conference admitting that in her 21 years at UF, the final loss still hurts the most.
"It’s always tough to end the season," Burleigh said.
"It never, ever gets any easier."
At the hands of a high-powered Duke offense — it put up 16 shots compared with UF’s nine — the Gators (19-4-1, 8-2-1 Southeastern Conference) found themselves gasping for some last-second magic to try and overcome the one-goal deficit late in the game.
Florida amped up its personnel, subbing in offense for defense in the final minutes.
On a last-minute set piece near midfield, Burleigh sent up her entire team, including goalkeeper Kaylan Marckese, to try to even up the game and force overtime.
But Harry Houdini never showed up with a trick up his sleeve for the Florida offense, and the 2015 season came to a not-so-magical end.
The first goal on the day — and the Gators’ lone goal — came off the head of freshman midfielder Sarah Troccoli.
Off a corner from senior Lauren Smith, Troccoli, standing at the near post, used her 5-foot-11 stature to get a head on Smith’s cross to flick it over Duke goalkeeper EJ Proctor.
The goal, which was the first scored against Duke (13-5-4, 4-3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) in the tournament, was Troccoli’s second in as many games.
Florida’s final lead of the season lasted just eight minutes and 22 seconds, as the Blue Devils answered with a header of their own.
Off a ball that junior defender Christina Gibbons booted high into the box from around 15 yards beyond the box, junior defender Rebecca Quinn nestled a headed ball into the near right post to bring the game all square at 1.
Going into the halftime locker room, the Gators were in dire need of an answer on offense.
However, the only answer that revealed itself in the second half was wearing a blue Duke jersey.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Blue Devils’ Toni Payne intercepted a UF pass and took a couple of long dribbles down the field.
She eventually found sophomore Casey Martinez standing just outside the right side of the box, and delivered a cross to unmarked midfielder Taylor Racioppi who then delivered a shot near post past a diving Marckese.
With 35 minutes to work with, the Gators needed to find a way to level up the match.
They outshot Duke 5-4 following the goal, but none of the attempts were enough to extend a season that was in desperate need of being saved.
"This is a dent for this program," Burleigh said. "This is going to help us, in the big picture, go farther."
With a team that was essentially divided into two — 17 freshmen and 15 non-freshmen — at the season’s start and got off to an ugly start to the SEC schedule in a 2-1 loss at home to Texas A&M on Sept. 10, Florida exceeded expectations with its deep run in the national tournament.
"Looking back on this year," junior forward Savannah Jordan said.
"Seeing where we started, the expectations that people had for this team, and how far we’ve come, I’m really proud of everyone."
Follow Kyle Brutman on Twitter @KBrut13
UF soccer coach Becky Burleigh puts her arm around defender Rachelle Smith (81) following Florida's 3-2 win against Florida State on Aug. 30, 2015, at James G. Pressly Stadium.
