Women's Soccer Ends Season in NCAA Tournament Loss to Florida

Sunday, November 16

2 pm

Mercer University

14-6-2

Florida

15-4-1

Mercer

Florida

Women's Soccer Ends Season in NCAA Tournament Loss to Florida

11/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Mercer women's soccer team dropped a close 3-0 decision to No. 10 Florida on Sunday afternoon at Donald R. Dizney Stadium. The Bears' finish the 2014 season with a 14-6-2 record after setting a new program record with single-season wins and winning their first Southern Conference championship.

Mercer's trip to the NCAA Tournament was the second in program history. Additionally, Mercer's senior class departs with a record of 46-29-8, notching the most wins in a four-year span in Mercer history.

"We came in today playing a very talented, very good Florida team," said Head Coach Tony Economopoulos. "A team that is talented enough to make it to the final four. We had a game plan in place to kind of frustrate them a little bit and take away how they play. I thought we did a pretty good job with that for 81 minutes. Unfortunately for us, we're just not as deep as they are. They broke us down in the last 10 minutes, and got a couple more goals. I can't fault our effort.

"I'm very proud of our team's efforts today," continued Economopoulos. "They did a phenomenal job working hard to defend them and counter. We created a couple good chances. Unfortunately we didn't put one away, but we did very well and credit to Florida. They had a good game plan, and put three chances away. So I wish them all the best in the next round."

Florida scored its first goal in the 19th minute when Lauren Smith found Annie Speese 12 yards out on the right side. The Bears held the Gators at 1-0 for the rest of the first half as well as most of the second half.

UF's second goal came in the 82nd minute when Pamela Begič found Savannah Jordan on the right side and Jordan sent the ball in from 15 yards out. Jordan added a third goal for Florida with just 26 seconds left on the clock when she sent one in from 10 yards out on the left.

The Mercer defense came up big a couple of times, including in the 81st minute when Florida was awarded a free kick at the top of the box and the Bears blocked the shot.

Florida outshot Mercer, 16-3, and won the corner kick battle, 6-3. In goal, Maggie Cropp made two saves for Mercer. The Bears' defense did a good job of keeping pressure off Cropp for most of the game, helping to stop several Florida shots from being on goal.

For all the latest information on Mercer women's soccer, please visit MercerBears.com or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow Mercer soccer on Twitter at @MercerWSoccer or www.twitter.com/MercerWSoccer.