History
Becky Burleigh was named the first head coach of the start-up Florida Gators soccer program on June 28, 1994, and has served as the only head coach in the program's fifteen-season history. Since the Gators' began play in the fall of 1995, the team has compiled a record of 264–70–23 and a winning percentage of 0.7717, and Burleigh's Gators teams have qualified for the NCAA Tournament thirteen of the last fifteen seasons.
In 1998, in the Gators soccer program's fourth year of existence, the Gators won their first NCAA national title by defeating the defending national champion North Carolina Tar Heels 1–0 in the final game of the tournament. The 1998 Gators finished 26–1, having lost their only match to the same North Carolina team that the Gators defeated in the NCAA championship final. Players from the Gators' 1998 national championship team included All-Americans Erin Baxter, Danielle Fotopoulos and Heather Mitts.
In addition to their 1998 national championship season, the Gators have previously advanced to the NCAA tournament semi-final once (2001), the quarter-finals twice (1996, 2003), and the round of sixteen four times (2006, 2007, 2008, 2012).
The Gators play in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. In conference play, the Gators teams have won ten SEC championships, and eight SEC tournament titles, leading all other SEC teams since the Florida soccer team began play in 1995. Most recently, the Gators won the SEC championship (regular season) again in 2010, and qualified for the NCAA women's soccer tournament for the eighth consecutive year. In 2009, the Gators advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament before losing to Oregon State. The Gators finished their 2009 season 8–1–2 in the SEC, and 16–6–2 overall.
Read more about this topic: Florida Gators Women's Soccer
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“The custard is setting; meanwhile
I not only have my own history to worry about
But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)