TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida opened the season Thursday with a 4-0 loss at preseason No. 3 Florida State in front of a soggy Seminole Soccer Complex crowd.
 
Lightning in the area delayed the 2025 season start by an hour. It is not unusual to experience weather delays in this series; most recently the start of the 2022 match was held up 20 minutes. But the weather wasn’t totally clear of Tallahassee, as rain started while the teams were announced pre-match. The teams left the field with 8:47 remaining in the opening half due to lightning with the match resuming at 9:55.
 
Florida is 21-7-3 in season openers. Thursday’s meeting the eighth time UF opened a season versus a top-20 team (2-4-2 all-time vs top-20 teams in opener)
 
Thursday’s Scoring:
Florida State started the scoring in the 34^th minute. Lara Dantas crossed the ball across the face of the goal to find Heather Gilchrist, who headed in the Seminoles’ first goal of the season.
 
Shortly after play resumed, the Seminoles were awarded a free kick at corner of box. The ball sent in by Enasia Colon was touched in by Gilchrist from eight yards at 39:16.
 
The Seminoles scored again within two minutes off another free kick from Colon. This time, Wrianna Hudson headed it in from six yards.
 
Second half scoring started in the 64^th minute. Riley Giana touched the ball forward to Taylor Suarez, who was wide and just inside the box. Her centering ball was one-touched in by Yuna McCormack from seven yards.
 
In the 77^th minute, Peyton Nourse followed the deflection on her own shot to score from eight yards to close the evening’s scoring.
 
DYK:

• Tonight’s 2 hours, 15 minute total weather delay isn’t the all-time record for a UF-FSU meeting. In 1999, the two teams waited out a 2:33 total weather delay in Gainesville.
• Three Gators made their first collegiate start Thursday – Skye Barnes, Addy Hess and Kai Tsakiris. Two who transferred to UF for spring 2025 semester – Brinley Murphy and Abby Gemma – made their first Gator start Thursday.
• Addy Hess and Kai Tsakiris mark the 24^th time in the program’s 31 seasons that the opening lineup included a freshman.

 

 
Florida Coach Samantha Bohon:
On this evening’s result:
“I’m such a competitor, so it’s really hard for me to sit here and find positives in a five nothing game, especially when it was within striking distance with that rain delay. You got to give Florida State credit, they came out and put two in the back of the net in those last eight minutes of the first half, and that was really frustrating for us. I think three or four of their goals were set pieces, which we actually identified in pre game that we cannot give them set pieces when you have a six foot two center forward for them.
 
“So disappointed with the execution, but I still think we’re going to accomplish what we want to accomplish out of this, which is a measuring, stick to see this is the level that we have expectations for our program to be at – so to see how far off, where we’re off, where we stood up. And I do think there were areas that we stood up probably better than in my tenure here. It gave us some really good insight into moving forward for the rest of the season, but obviously disappointed to come away with a loss.” – Florida Head Coach Samantha Bohon

Records:

Florida: 0-1, 0-0-0 SEC

Florida State: 1-0, 0-0-0 ACC

 

Series Record:

Florida State leads 18-13.

 

Next Up:

Florida opens a three-match home stand with Towson. The Tigers open 2025 action Sunday with a home match versus Mount St. Mary’s.  

 

vs Towson

Date: Thursday, Aug. 21

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Site: Donald R. Dizney Stadium (1,500)

Stream: SEC Network + with Ryan Urquhart and Matthew Stubbington calling the action

StatBroadcast

Admission: Free for all Gator soccer regular-season matches

Promotions: Let the Gators hear your support: The first 150 fans get a Vuvuzela! Show Your Gator Pride: First 200 UF students get a free t-shirt; Tickets for Gators Football Opener: Enter to win a pair of tickets for Gator football’s August 30 opener versus LIU.

 

Florida (0-1, 0-0 SEC) at preseason No. 3 Florida State (1-0, 0-0 ACC)

Stadium: Seminole Soccer Complex (367)

Weather: 86 degrees, lightning, humid, winds SW at 5 mph

 

Goals by Period	1	2	Total
Florida	0	0	0
Florida State	3	2	5

 
Scoring Summary:

No.	Time	Team	Goal Scorer	Assist
1.	33:30	FSU	Heather Gilchrist	Lara Dantas
2.	39:16	FSU	Heather Gilchrist	Enasia Colon
3.	41:45	FSU	Wrianna Hudson	Enasia Colon
4.	63:24	FSU	Yuna McCormack	Taylor Suarez, Giana Riley
5.	76:04	FSU	Peyton Nourse

 
Shots: Florida 7, Florida State 26
Saves: UF 4 (Paloma Peña 1; Jayden Emmanuel 3) Florida State 3 (Addie Todd 3)
 
Offsides: UF 0, FSU 2
 
Cautions:
Brinley Murphy-UF (38:47) – yellow; Katie Johnston-UF (48:33) – yellow; Sophia Sindelar-UF (74:03) – yellow; Janet Okeke-FSU (84:08) – yellow