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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 9, 2001
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Goals from four players led the Florida women's soccer team to a 4-0 victory Thursday over Vanderbilt in the opening round of the SEC tournament at the LSU Soccer Complex.
The Gators (15-3-1) play in the semifinals tonight against Kentucky, a 4-2 winner over Tennessee.
Florida senior Abby Wambach, the SEC player of the year, opened the scoring at 14:47. Junior Danielle Murphy chipped the ball over the Commodores defense and Wambach ran the ball down and beat the goalie from 8 yards. Freshman Christine Johnson and seniors Andi Sellers and Jill Stevens tabbed the other goals.
"It was a good opening match for us," Gators coach Becky Burleigh said. "We came out and accomplished the goals we wanted to which was to have a shutout, score some goals and be able to rest some people. It was what we were looking for in a first-round game.
"We expected that they would play a lot of people in the back, and to score early is such a big help because it takes them out of that game."
ACC TOURNAMENT: Florida State, with five first-half goals, won its first-ever conference tournament game, advancing past No. 7 seed Maryland 7-2 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
"We wanted to make a statement today and I think we did that," coach Patrick Baker said. "I think this team can score goals. We have only been shut out once all season and we have been averaging two goals a game all season but to get five in the first half was amazing."
The victory tied FSU's record for the most in a season and broke the record for the most goals in a postseason game. The Seminoles (14-6) face Virginia, a 2-1 overtime winner against Duke, tonight.
SSC AWARDS: Spartans junior Ginger Lynn, a Tampa native, was named Sunshine State Conference player of the year and defensive player of the Year. Eckerd's Johanna Wiborg was named offensive player of the year.
BIG EAST AWARDS: Miami senior Deidre Bass and sophomore Vonda Matthews were named to the All-Big East second team.
BIG SOUTH: Elon's Marissa Venuti of St. Petersburg earned first-team honors. The senior forward led the Phoenix in goals (six) assists (five) and points (17).
Tampa standout Roy Fink was named Sunshine State Conference player of the year and SSC offensive player of the year. ... Saint Leo's Anthony Rosso of Tarpon Springs was selected co-freshman of the year and was named to the All-SSC's second team. ... Former Jesuit High standout Stash Graham of La Salle made the Atlantic 10's all-rookie team as a goalie.
FARMERS BRANCH, Texas. -- Top-seeded Jessica Lehnhoff and Lindsay Dawaf of Florida advanced to the second round of the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.