Naples Standard

Florida Gulf Coast University Athletics recently issued the following announcement.

The FGCU (2-3) women's soccer team fought hard against Florida (1-4-1), Sunday afternoon in wet and sloppy conditions at Pickering Field, but fell to the Gators, 1-0.

Florida's Alivia Gonzalez scored the only goal of the game in the 54th minute which proved to be enough to secure the Gators' first victory of the season.

"It's a tough goal to give up. We just have to regroup. We are getting better each game and that's the key," said head coach Jim Blankenship. "We got plenty ahead of us and the key is to try to fix it and get it right when we get into conference play. We are playing a tough schedule for a reason to help prepare us for conference."

The Gators outshot FGCU, 15-12, and had a 6-4 advantage in shots on goal. Florida also earned six corner kicks to FGCU's four.

Freshmen Kajsa Lang (Kalmar, Sweden/Stagneliusskolan) and Alyssa Wilson (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers HS) led the Eagles with two shots. Graduate student Zoey Spitzer (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast HS), freshman Ashley Labbe (Lake Worth, Fla./Suncoast HS), junior Kara Kyramarios (Titusville, Fla./Titusville HS), and freshman Rosa Horskjaer (Copenhagen, Denmark/Falkonergardens) each had one shot on goal.

Spitzer looked to give the Eagles an early lead in the first minute of the game, but her shot was saved. FGCU added two more shots in the first five minutes before lightning stopped the match in the 6th minute.

After about an 80-minute delay, the two teams came back on the field and after a couple of minutes of action, heavy rain started falling which lasted into the second half.

The Eagles had one of their best chances of the day in the 33rd minute when they earned a free kick just outside the box. Lang stepped over the ball and fired a shot, but it went just high.

FGCU had a couple of chances late in the game with the best opportunity coming off a corner kick in the 88th minute. Labbe took the corner and after bouncing around in the box, the ball found the foot of Horskjaer who took a shot, but the keeper secured it.

Next up for the Eagles will be their biggest challenge yet as the #1 Florida State Seminoles come to Fort Myers. Kickoff from Pickering Field is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday night.

Original source can be found here.