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LAND O'LAKES - No more trips to Sarasota during winter break for the Land O'Lakes girls, who this season will travel inland for a tournament in Orlando.
The Gators will play in the Lake Highland Prep Invitational on Jan. 6-7. That ends six consecutive appearances in the Sarasota Classic, which has expanded from 16 to 32 teams.
"It's just for different competition, that's all," King said. "More variety, a change."
Besides, King added, it's not like her players had time to enjoy being in a tournament along the coast. In six trips, there was only one visit to the beaches in Sarasota.
"There's not really a whole lot of time in between games," King said. "All we do is eat, sleep and play soccer."
Land O'Lakes is the county's only girls team in a holiday tourney, but three boys teams are scheduled to play during the break. The Gator boys are in the Admiral Cup in Tampa and Ridgewood hosts the Ridgewood Winter Soccer Tournament, whose field includes Wesley Chapel.
Rams coach Ed McComiskey has scheduled the series since 2000, except 2001 when some teams backed out late and McComiskey could not fill the field of eight in enough time for scheduling purposes.
St. Petersburg Catholic returns as the defending champion. Ridgewood has won the tournament twice and Palm Harbor University once.
McComiskey prefers to arrange a tourney instead of applying to enter other series. That, he reasoned, ensures his players will not have too much time off between regular-season games.
"You take a chance if you wait too long to get involved in a tourney," he said. "You can practice all you want, but it makes a difference if you play some games over that long break."
Land O'Lakes and Mitchell were the first teams to win 10 games in girls soccer this season. The Gators entered Friday's game at Wesley Chapel with a 10-3-1 record and were coming off Wednesday's 3-2 loss to River Ridge.
Lindsay Martin led Land O'Lakes with 11 goals. Amanda Goble and Brittani Stoltz were next with 10 each.