In a double overtime thriller on Sunday, Oct. 10, the University of Tampa women’s soccer team edged the Florida Tech Panthers 2-1. Carolyn Simon put the ball in the back of the net at Pepin Stadium for the winning goal.
The dramatic victory, however, was overshadowed by two tough conference losses during the week.
The Spartans have dropped three out of their last five contests and now find themselves in the bottom half of the Sunshine State Conference standings with an overall record of 8-4. Sunday night’s win over Florida Tech just put the Spartans at .500 in conference play.
The Spartans struck first on Tuesday, Oct. 5 against Florida Southern with a Samantha Kay goal, but were unable to maintain the lead for more than a few seconds as Southern countered with a goal the next minute of play.
The 17th ranked team in the country would finish off Tampa with ten minutes to go in the game.
“It’s tough,” said senior UT captain Pasquale Anderson. “Last year we lost to them at home, in front of a whole bunch of people.”
On Oct. 8, a Friday night, the Spartans came out strong as well. This time, they were in a battle with the number two team in the conference, Nova Southeastern.
For 49 minutes, the game was scoreless, but in the 50th minute, Tampa committed a foul in their own penalty box, giving Alexis Hernandez the only chance she needed to put Nova ahead for good.
Head Coach Gerry Lucey recalled the play.
“We gave the ball away in their half of the field with a sloppy turnover. What would have been our midfield player wasn’t in position, so we weren’t giving the right support, so our shape was wrong,” said Lucey. “Then, they broke down the field and one of our central defenders basically just pushed a kid and gave away a penalty kick unnecessarily.”
The potent offensive attack of UT that put opponents under duress during the first half of the season has been virtually non-existent of late, except against a 1-10 Eckerd team. Tampa managed just four shots against FSC, only two of which were on goal. They would not even test Nova keeper Chrissy Hy – all three Spartan strikes failed to find the frame.
“There was a lack of creativity, there was a lack of timing [and] our passion was off,” said Coach Lucey in disappointment.
“We played at a slower pace than we normally play, and in the end, a game that we would expect to win just got away from us. If we can’t shoot on target, we can’t expect to win games.”
Even Tampa’s defense, which has been an anchor for the program all year, has had a hard time protecting a lead. In their four losses this year, the team has conceded five goals after taking a lead.
“Part of it’s just maturity. We’ve got some good players who come from some good club teams. It’s just learning from each other,” Coach Lucey said.
He went on to say that although the valuable experience his freshmen were receiving boded well for the future, they would have to mature quickly to accomplish some of this season’s team goals.
To the team’s credit, the Sunshine State Conference is arguably one of the best in Division II soccer, and often teams that are battle tested in the regular season have success in the postseason.
Perhaps the team’s progress will be revealed as they move into a stretch of non-conference games. They will certainly be tested on Oct. 17 by the second-ranked team in the nation, Columbus State, and Palm Beach Atlantic’s program, said Coach Lucey.
“We never, never take anybody lightly,” he said firmly. “Our focus is on ourselves. We don’t focus in on the opponent too much. Our focus is to get our game correct and our shape correct and try to get our style of play the way that we want it.”
Two wins out of conference could be huge confidence builders for the Spartans, and both coach and players believe that if the team can play the Spartan way for ninety minutes, they can compete with anyone in the country.
Much will be revealed on Friday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. when 7-2 Palm Beach Atlantic rolls into Tampa. The matchup will be the featured homecoming game for the Spartans.
The Spartans will have to keep their focus more than ever with Columbus State looming only two days later.
Davis Fox can be reached at davison.fox@spartans.ut.edu.