Maryland women’s soccer seeks to remain unbeaten at home this weekend vs Florida

Photo by Rose Fernandes/ Maryland Athletics

Maryland women’s soccer welcomes Florida to Ludwig Field on Sunday as it pushes to move to 5-0 at home to start the season. The Terps secured their fourth home victory of the season on Thursday, beating Navy 2-1 and improving to a 4-1 overall record.

Maryland got back in the win column on Thursday due to another stellar defensive outing. The Terps kept Navy scoreless throughout the first 83 minutes, but a late-game penalty called on Tahirah Turnage-Morales set up the Midshipmen to score on the penalty kick. 

Sophomore midfielder Ellie Egeland scored first in the match for Maryland, connecting on an unassisted shot and continuing to show her offensive improvement this season. After recording just two assists in 14 games last season, the sophomore has two goals and one assist through 5 games this year.

After Redshirt freshman forward Gemma Davitian pushed the Terps’ lead to two in the second half, scoring off the rebound of sophomore midfielder Emily Lenhard’s shot. 

The Gators enter the match following a 1-0 loss to USF on Thursday. While Florida and USF ended up with similar results on the stat sheet, both with 11 total shots, and Florida accumulating four saves to USF’s six, the Gators had seven more fouls than the Bulls. The Gators have led all four of their games in fouls to start the season, with their most in a game being 16 against Towson. 

Similar to Maryland, one of Florida’s greatest strengths this season is its ability to produce shots and create various scoring opportunities. Both teams are averaging 15.0 shots per game so far this season. The Gators collected 20 shots against Towson and 22 shots versus North Florida; both games resulted in wins for Florida. 

Florida’s top offensive threats this season are senior Njeri Butts and freshman forward Katie Johnston — who has appeared off the bench in all four of Florida’s games. Butts has two goals on the season, with one coming in each of the Gators’ wins. Johnston has two goals and two assists this year, all coming in the Gators’ match against Towson. 

Defensively, Florida has been splitting time between goalkeepers Jayden Emmanuel and Paloma Peña. Emmanuel has been solid to start the year, notching nine saves and only three goals against. Peña has struggled, surrendering five goals with only three saves. 

Through the first five games of the season, five Terps have scored at least two goals. Kelsey Smith currently leads the team with three and is trailed by Ava Morales, Lisa McIntyre, Egeland and Davitian. Egeland has scored both as a starter against UMBC and most recently off the bench versus Navy. 

Leading the way on defense for Maryland continues to be redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Faith Luckey. She currently has 12 saves on the year with only three goals allowed through five games. 

Offensively, both Maryland and Florida are off to very similar starts, but Maryland should have the edge over the Gator defense. Florida currently allows two goals per game to opponents, compared to Maryland’s 0.6 goals allowed per game. 

If the Terps can take advantage of Florida’s inconsistent goalkeeping and Luckey remains dominant in front of the net, Maryland will keep their perfect streak at home to start the season.