GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida soccer’s preseason training began Wednesday. Day 4 of preseason action finished with a 2-1 Gator exhibition win over USF Saturday evening at the Donald R. Dizney Stadium.
It was the first action against an opposing team for both programs. The exhibition was moved up a day in anticipation of the impact in the Gainesville area from Tropical Storm Debby.
It was the Bulls scoring first off a deflection three minutes in the first of three 30-minute periods.
Sophomore Lena Bailey got things going for the Gators quickly in the second period, scoring on an angled 16-yard blast.
In the 41st minute, senior Lauren Donovan was tripped as she moved through the box. She successfully converted the penalty kick to close Saturday’s scoring.
As expected, the Gator coaching saw some good individual performances and some areas the team will work on going forward.
Florida Coach Samantha Bohon said:
“We were really clear and basic with some of the fundamental goals, one of which was to get some of our new, young players some minutes and I think they did fantastic. That was very exciting and promising for us. And then just building off of what we worked on in the spring. So to be able to just continue and add on to the spring is really going to help us.
“The great thing is our players are fit. This is the most fit they’ve been in my three seasons. So they did their part, they did their homework. Shout out to Katelyn [Kight, UF Strength and Conditioning Coordinator] who helped them prepare in the spring and during Summer B. That’s great because now we can really just get to the soccer and the teaching piece.
“We want to continue to build our backlines as they’ve got a lot of experience, but we’re pretty new on the attacking front. We’ve got some younger personalities so we just need to be a little bit more clinical in the final third. There’s some really good things from tonight that we can build on.”
Next Up:
The final exhibition match of 2024 preseason action is Saturday at Georgia Southern.
Date: Aug. 10
Time: 6 p.m. ET
Site: Tormenta Stadium<https://www.tormentafc.com/stadium/>
Admission: Free
2024 Florida Soccer Schedule<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-soccer/schedule>
