The FGCU women's soccer team (2-2-0) is gearing up for a pair of matches against Florida (2-4-0) and Ball State (5-0-0). The Eagles will first travel up to Gainesville for a 6:30 p.m. tilt on Thursday, Sept. 12 against the Gators. That game will be streamed on the SECN+. Following the road trip, FGCU will return home to host the Cardinals at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15 at the FGCU Soccer Complex. The home match will be streamed on YouTube Live.
The Green and Blue:
After dropping a pair of matches, FGCU earned its way back into the win column with a 2-0 shutout over Northeastern last Sunday (Sept. 8). Current MAC Hermann Trophy candidate senior Evdokia Popadinova netted her first goal of the season before sophomore Ashlee Brentlinger sealed the win with her second career goal. Popandinova's goal was her 15th in her career at FGCU and is two shy of passing
After her performance against the Huskies, Popadinova now ranks 10th all-time with 37 career points, while fellow senior Marjorie Boilesen checks in at sixth with 55 points.
Senior Melissa Weck (2-2) collected her second shutout of the season and now needs just 1.7 more career shutouts to stand alone at second in the FGCU record book.
The United Soccer Coaches have the Eagles ranked as the 10th team in the South Region poll. Of the teams ahead of the Green and Blue, three are nationally ranked and two are receiving votes.
Scouting Florida:
The match between the Eagles and the Gators will be the fifth in the history between the two programs, which is highlighted by a pair of NCAA Tournament games. FGCU faced off against Florida in the first round of both the 2011 and 2016 NCAA Tournaments. In both matches, the Gators downed the Eagles by a score of 3-0.
The Gators enter Thursday's contest with a four-match losing streak and have fallen out of the national rankings after receiving four votes last week. Florida dropped road games against No. 3 USC, No 5. UCLA, and No. 6 Florida State, as well as a home match against UCF, who received three votes in this week's poll. Both UCLA and UCF shut out the Gators entirely.
Junior Rose Deanne leads Florida's offense with three goals and one assist, good for seven points. So far, the Gators have netted seven goals from five different players, while just three players have tallied assists. Redshirt-junior Susi Espinoza has started in net for all six of Florida's games. The keeper has been scored on 10 times and her only shutout so far was a 2-0 shutout over a USF squad that is ranked 25th in the national poll.
This will be the second time this season that the Eagles have taken on an SEC opponent. On Aug. 25, FGCU hosted Auburn and dominated the first half of play before the game was cancelled due to weather. Overall, the Eagles are 4-8 against SEC programs.
Scouting Ball State:
Sunday's contest at the FGCU Soccer Complex will mark the first meeting between the teams. Though the Cardinals are not ranked nationally, they were tabbed eighth in this week's United Soccer Coaches Poll for the Midwest region, behind only Power-5 opponents.
Ball State will head to Fort Myers with a 16-match unbeaten streak that includes five wins this season. Last season, the Cardinals won nine-straight matches before a 1-1 draw against Bowling Green, who advanced on PK's 5-4, in the 2018 Mid-American Conference Tournament. This season, Ball State has picked up wins in all four of its home contests and most recently defeated Omaha 1-0 (Sept. 6) in its first road game of 2019.
Prior to taking on FGCU, the Cardinals are slated to take on FAU in a 7 p.m. match at the Owls' home stadium on Friday, Sept. 13.
This season, redshirt-senior Tristin Stuteville has started every game between the pipes for the Cardinals and has four shutouts. She has made allowed just one goal against 19 saves, good for a .950 save percentage. Ball State's offensive effort is led by sophomore Grace Alsop, who has found the back of the net four times and is credited with one game-winner. The team's strongest showing so far was a 6-0 victory over Eastern Illinois (Aug. 23), when Alsop netted a hat trick and three other Cardinals scored.
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