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Netzel’s Second Brace of Season Leads UCF to 2-2 Draw Against Florida

by James Warnick
Box Score

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Senior Chloe Netzel recorded her second brace of the young season en route to leading UCF to a 2-2 draw against Florida on Sunday night at Donald R. Dizney Stadium. With the result, the Knights remain unbeaten on the season as well as in their last five matches against the Gators.

“Florida is a good team and has a completely different style than us. I thought that we handled that well and scored a couple of good goals,” head UCF coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak said. “We’re unbeaten overall on the season, so we need to continue to keep our heads up and stay committed to our identity. We just need to keep getting after it.”

With the Black and Gold (1-0-2) putting the pressure on in the early stages, Emily Thompson fed a pass ahead to Netzel on the left side and Netzel continued her stellar start to the season with a left-footed strike to the far side of the goal. The goal came in the 17th minute and gave UCF an early 1-0 advantage.

Later tied at 1-1 in the second half, Netzel again fired in a strike from the left side of box to the far side of goal for her second brace of her career and the season to give the Knights a 2-1 lead in the 60th minute. Mia Asenjo was credited with an assist on the play as she fed Netzel for the Preseason All-Big 12 honoree’s fifth goal of the season.  

“We’re doing a great job of finding Chloe right now,” Roberts Sahaydak added. “She is one of the best players in the country and if we can continue to get the ball to her feet, she’ll continue to score goals. It’s awesome having a player like that.”

The Gators (1-0-2) again countered back 10 minutes later, however, as Sophie White managed to get open in the box for the equalizer in the 70th minute.

The Knights got a couple of more solid looks from Netzel down the stretch along with a couple of questionable offside calls, as the contest would go on to end in the 2-all draw.

“Our team is very good about knowing when to push forward and I’m just happy to be on the end of a number of those opportunities,” Netzel said. “This team has a lot of fight to it. Even when we’re down, we continue to fight for the full 90 minutes. We’ll be ready to get back out there and fight again next Sunday against Georgia.”

Early in the first half, the Knights had a chance from Honoka Hamano in the eighth minute, as she broke free on the right side and drilled a ball towards the near side of the goal but UF’s Alexa Goldberg made a diving save.

Following a 50-minute first-half weather delay due to lightning in the area, the two resumed play in the 31st minute. After a Gator foul just outside the box, Annika Huhta had a good look for the Knights as she lifted a shot over traffic, but it sailed just high off the crossbar as the score remained 1-0.

With time winding down at the end of the first half, UF’s Delaney Tellex fed a pass over the top to Vera Blom who was able to find the back of the net to tie things in the 43rd minute. The referee went to video review to see if Blom was offside, but the goal ended up standing as the score was tied at 1-1 at the intermission.

Netzel then gave the Black and Gold the lead in the second half, but Florida’s White was able to again tie the score to lead to the draw.

Both sides finished with seven shots on target on night as well as five saves apiece, which included a nice save from freshman keeper Sami Lipcon in the 84th minute.  

With the draw, UCF is now 4-0-1 over UF in the last five meetings between the in-state foes. The Knights have also outscored the Gators by an impressive tally of 12-2 during the stretch.

The Black and Gold will now return home to face No. 16 Georgia for Senior Knight on Sunday, Sept. 1at 6 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex. Following next Sunday’s contest, UCF will head to Tampa to face South Florida in their final non-conference match of the season on Thursday, Sept. 5.