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After their annual showdown on Sept. 5, the Florida and Florida State women's soccer programs seemed headed in different directions.
The Gators won 2-0 that night in Gainesville to improve to 3-0 and bolster their national ranking, while the touted Seminoles sank to 0-3.
Less than three months later, the Gators and Seminoles have ended up in the same place and heading for the loftiest of destinations: The winner of tonight's game at Percy Beard Stadium advances to the College Cup, the NCAA semifinals against the winner of Saturday's Connecticut-BYU matchup.
"It's a huge game any time we play them," FSU midfielder Jez Ratliff said. "But to put it in this setting, for a chance to go to the Final Four, it doesn't get any better."
The Gators lead the series 7-3, but the Seminoles beat UF 2-1 in the teams' lone NCAA meeting, in the second round at Gainesville in 2000.
FSU opened that season with a win against the visiting Gators, which coupled with its postseason result, represented a turning point for the fledgling program that used Florida as its measuring stick.
The Gators (19-3-2), the No. 3 seed in the 64-team field, made it to the Final Four in 1998 - and stunned North Carolina to win the national title - and again in 2001.
FSU (16-7-1), the No. 11 seed, had never advanced beyond the Sweet 16.
"I think they have a solid team," UF coach Becky Burleigh said. "They have a lot of good players in every position and they are well-coached and they are having a good season. They struggled early, but they've turned it around and since they turned it around they've had a great season so far."
As hard as that is to imagine on Sept. 5.
"That was heartbreaking and hard for us to go through, especially to lose against our rival," said forward Leah Gallegos, who leads FSU with 18 goals. "It was so tough to lose so many games in a row. A lot of us weren't used to that."
After a split of games in Kansas, the Seminoles scrapped their new alignment (a 4-5-1) and returned to a 4-4-2, which helped ignite the offense. Freshmen defender Kelly Rowland also moved from the outside to the center of defense for a struggling Teresa Rivera and that stabilized the back four. (Rivera has returned, replacing injured star Kristin Boyce.)
Since making their changes the Seminoles are 15-3-1, with two of those losses by one goal against No. 1 North Carolina, the prohibitive favorite to win the NCAA title.
"The look will be different," FSU coach Patrick Baker said.
From both teams.
The Gators have developed. In the NCAA Tournament, they have show remarkable resiliency. They needed double overtime to beat Central Florida 3-2 in the opening round, rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat Mississippi 4-3 in another double-overtime thriller then nipped Tennessee on a penalty kick in the waning moments.
"Do I like that we're still in it? Yes," midfielder/forward Dena Floyd said. "Has it given me a heart attack sometimes? Yes. But I'm definitely just happy that we're in it. I'll take drama if we keep on winning."
And moving in the right direction.
And sending FSU in the wrong direction, to boot.
- Times staff writer Antonya English contributed to this report.